AROUND THE WORIX 
IN A YEAR 



George L. Carlisle 




Class. 
Book. 



_G^ 



Copyright^ . 



COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT: 



AROUND THE WORLD 
IN A YEAR 



BY 



GEORGE L. CARLISLE 



OF THE NEW YORK BAR 




NEW YORK 

ROBERT GRIER COOKE, Inc. 

420 FIFTH AVENUE 

1908 



|UBRARY of CONGRESS? 
Two Copies Receive 

MAR 7 1908 

Copynif'i entry 
COPY B., 



Copyright, 1908 

BY 

ROBERT GRIER COOKE, Inc. 



PREFATORY 

If through a few introductory lines the reader can 
catch the author's point of view, there will be mutual 
understanding which may possibly add interest to the 
perusal of the pages following. 

Twenty-five years at the New York bar, with its 
drudgery, responsibilities and excitement, had made 
me tired. The pace was too swift. It seemed to be a 
question of breaking down or breaking away. I chose 
the latter and determined to indulge to the full an inor- 
dinate desire for travel which had been only whetted 
by half a dozen hurried tours in Europe, snatched from 
meagre opportunity. Time always pressed and pro- 
fessional cares were only half laid down. / This time, 
with a light heart I practically threw up my hands, ~>k*yfc5 — 
cut loose and prepared to take the consequences/7 

Suddenly quitting the busy life of a New York lawyer 
for that of a mere idler and sightseer and running 
completely away from the long mental strain of making 
briefs and arguments for the benefit of distressed 
clients had to be bridged or ameliorated, and the writ- 
ing of this book became both a pastime and relief dur- 
ing those moments when even leisure and sightseeing 
would, I am sure, have palled. The demon of monot- 
ony, no matter of what, should be appeased. 

This is in no sense a guide-book; it is the tale of a 
journey. Nor yet is it a diary, but rather a record of 
impressions. It is essentially and necessarily a sketch- 
book with a succession of short stories of happenings 



iv Prefatory 

which occurred just as told. All that is promised in 
way of statistics is a statement here and there, care- 
fully verified, relating to some of the places visited 
and things seen — sufficient only to illumine the situa- 
tions and put you on speaking terms, as it were, with 
them. It is a perfectly accurate narrative of such of 
our haps, mishaps and impressions as seem to be of 
some general interest. Of course all parts of the jour- 
ney will not be of equal interest. Some of our experi- 
ences were pitched in the minor key. 

If the reader detects any irreverence or undue levity 
anywhere in the narrative, let him lay it to the holiday 
spirit which the enjoyment of so much new-found lib- 
erty engendered. The effort has been to speak of 
things as we found them without fear, favor or preju- 
dice ; and, if possible, to convey just the impression we 
ourselves received. The book must depend upon such 
intrinsic interest as attaches to the things seen and sit- 
uations encountered; for a lawyer's work is not con- 
ducive to literary style, though it should give him a 
certain facility in the classification and use of facts. 
The thought is indulged that perhaps the tour yielded 
sufficient variety to make this record of it kaleido- 
scopic, as it were, and in some degree entertaining. 

Now then poke up the fire, get into an easy chair 
and your very best humor, and you shall go all around 
the world with us without the trouble of packing a 
trunk or consulting a time-card. 

The Author. 



CONTENTS 













PAGE 


The Start ........ 1 


Across the Atlantic 










2 


Gibraltar 










10 


Algiers .... 










13 


Algiers to Genoa . 










23 


Genoa to Naples 










. 28 


Naples to Brindisi . 










30 


Brindisi to Port Said 










. 33 


Port Said to Cairo . 










36 


Cairo .... 










. 38 


Up the Nile . 










. 49 


Tenting on the Desert . 










76 


Cairo Revisited 










84 


Lord Cromer . 










93 


Alexandria to Athens 










96 


Athens .... 










99 


Athens to Constantinople 










125 


Constantinople 










130 


Constantinople to Constanza 


and ( 


Irsov 


V 




147 


On the Danube 










152 


Budapest 










154 


Vienna ..... 










162 


Carlsbad 










169 



VI 



Contents 



The Summer . 

Marseilles to Bombay 

India 

Burmah 

Ceylon . 

Colombo to Penang and Singapore 

Java 

Hong Kong 

Canton . 

Macao 

Shanghai 

Japan 

Hawaii . 

Honolulu to San Francisco and Home 



PAGE 

180 
182 
189 
233 
252 
261 
265 
272 
274 
282 
284 
286 
299 
308 



THE START 

It was Friday, the twenty-sixth of January, 1906, 
when, with wife and daughter, I sailed away from New 
York on the White Star "Republic," bound for the 
Mediterranean and round the world. Waving handker- 
chiefs, high spirits and fine weather made what seemed 
a most propitious start, and the saloon bedecked with 
flowers from kind friends gave it color. But perhaps 
the reader who has given heed to the Friday and the 
twenty-six — a sort of double thirteen — in it, is becom- 
ing curious to know how things turned out. I may as 
well confess that I am unusually loaded with suspicions 
of and concerning ladders, cats that are black, thir- 
teens and Fridays. For the sake of argument it is 
admitted this may all be very foolish, but invitation 
is extended to those who think so to prove it if they 
can. Though some sailors will now heave anchor on 
a Friday I would not, and on this occasion, for all 
intents and purposes, think we did not. The hoodoo, it 
was hoped, was extracted from this particular Friday 
the twenty-sixth for us as, with that end in view, we 
and our luggage were moved from home the day before, 
although convenience dictated waiting till the fateful 
Friday. Be it understood therefore that we made 
our start on the Thursday just previous, which is dif- 
ferent. What is the use of taking unnecessary chances 1 
Now watch the results and conclude as you see fit. 



ACROSS THE ATLANTIC 

A preliminary look around showed there were about 
twice as many women passengers as men — telling the 
story how men must work that women may travel. 

Our first stop was at Ponta Delgada in the Azores. 
To reach there we passed over a lot of rough wintry 
sea, the kind that sends trunks scudding across the cabin 
floor, as I can testify. Wife and daughter again proved 
their superiority as sailors, as for two of the days I 
was in the throes— if not the throws— of sea-sickness. 
I once heard a poor sea-sickened fellow returning from 
Europe say, "Not for all England would I go back," 
and it was evident he meant it. A storm at sea puts 
some people into the lowest depths of misery. I be- 
lieve I have sounded those depths. But, notwith- 
standing what our English fellow-passengers termed 
the "narsty" weather, we enjoyed the voyage across 
the Atlantic, always so bracing to tired nerves. On 
the fifth morning the isle of Pico in the Azorean 
group rose majestically out of the ocean until it scored 
its whole seven thousand six hundred feet. With that 
altitude its sabre top can, of course, be seen many miles 
over the waste. Fayal followed soon. We were to go 
ashore at Ponta Delgada when St. Michael, the island 
farthest east, was reached, and were all very happy. 
My party enjoyed the chance to revisit the Azores. It 
breaks the long voyage just when threatened with mo- 
notony. They must always be a delight to the sea-tired 
traveler. Their cloud-capped peaks, precipitous sides, 



Across the Atlantic 



sunny plateaus clothed in richest green and ravines 
dotted with prosperous Portuguese-looking villages 
furnished a day 's panorama not soon to be forgotten. 

No attempt will be made to solve that moss-grown 
problem as to whether these Azores and the Atlantis 
of the Greeks are identical. I am not looking for trou- 
ble; but, in passing, will venture the remark that I do 
not understand that the Greeks owe their fame to their 
geographers. 

We sailed very close to Fayal, that dreamy old town 
dear to all sailors and which so often figures in their 
yarns. Then we skirted high Pico, close to those 
smoking fissures in its side which at first we mistook for 
smoldering bog-fires, but learned were incipient vol- 
canoes. Ocular demonstration this of inward fire not 
far away and a queer sight for those of us used to little 
else than Sandy Hook or Cape Cod. 

With apologies to the guide-book makers and on the 
authority of a native Azorean, an engineer, who took 
passage with us from Ponta Delgada on his way to 
Lisbon and with whom I fell into conversation, let it 
be known that these Azores are nine volcanic islands, 
St. Michael, Pico and Fayal being the largest and 
most important. Flores and St. Michael, the most 
widely separated, are two hundred and fifty miles apart 
— showing how spread out over grim mid-ocean they 
are. When discovered in 1427 they were wholly unin- 
habited — a curious fact — but now support a population 
of three hundred thousand. They are divided, polit- 
ically, into three groups; each furnished with a Gov- 
ernor supplied from Lisbon. St. Michael, the largest 
and most populous, has one hundred and fifty thousand 
inhabitants with scarcely any foreign admixture — that 



Around the World in a Year 



is to say, just a sprinkling of Spaniards, not a single 
negro and only about twenty of the ubiquitous Eng- 
lish. It is as single-blooded a population as can be 
found anywhere outside of China. My engineer in- 
formant also told of a number of steam-holes and hot 
springs on St. Michael which, like the smoking fissures 
of Pico, are evidences of volcanic activity. The princi- 
pal products of St. Michael are pineapples, alcohol, 
wine and tea, and in the order given. A six hundred 
ton shipload of pineapples goes to London weekly dur- 
ing the season and the value of the alcohol exported 
yearly, made from native sweet potatoes, mounts into 
the millions — which removes it from sight, or at least 
feeling. If further statistics are required hunt up 
that engineer or buy a good guide-book. 

We anchored in the road off Ponta Delgada at mid- 
night and at daybreak the view of the mole and city 
was very .beautiful, almost imposing. The landing 
being by small boats and the sea rough, some of the 
ship 's company were given interior reminders of what 
in the log were called ' ' fresh gales ' ' which had visited 
us the second and third days out. Our look in at this 
chief city of the Azores was very enjoyable. The Portu- 
guese are naturally a polite people and racial charac- 
teristics are always accentuated among islanders. 
While driving through the well-kept streets we were 
greeted with smiles and bows from upper windows and 
from behind lattice, and we shook the outstretched 
hand of the beautiful little beggar-boy without causing 
more than wide-eyed surprise. We noticed also many 
of the outlandish hooded costumes peculiar to the 
Azores and we visited the extensive pineries, the mar- 
ket, the cathedral and a number of gardens lawned in 



Across the Atlantic 5 

finest spring green and rich with bloom — February the 
second to the contrary notwithstanding. The showiest 
of the gardens, or rather parks, — that which surrounds 
the palace on the hill, — is the home of the Marquis of 
something or other, who, though only nineteen, is an 
attache to the Portuguese embassy in London. Which 
would seem to show that he exercised very good judg- 
ment in the selection of his parents. 

On the ride through the town we were seized with 
a want for coppers of the country to dole to the beg- 
gars, and, waiving all suspicion, asked a swarthy cab- 
man for change of an English shilling. A little later 
I was made aware that but sevenpence worth of the 
Portuguese coin had been vouchsafed. Here was 
money-changing with a sting and it involved the ques- 
tion who was robbed, we or the beggars? Verily the 
genus cabby is the same the world over. Accounts in 
the Azores are figured in reis, which brought confu- 
sion to one of the passengers while ashore there. With 
his wife he ventured into a restaurant and had dinner 
and wine. He was handed a bill for three thousand reis 
and promptly wilted, and continued to wilt until it was 
explained that three thousand reis in the Azores equal 
only a dollar and a half. For the first few minutes, 
though, he felt quite lonely and like trying for a 
compromise. I believe one of Mark Twain's "Inno- 
cents" met with a somewhat similar adventure when 
"abroad" here. The coincidence tends to verify for 
me the veraciousness of that most interesting work. 

As we hoisted anchor and made for Gibraltar — nine 
hundred and ninety miles away — we mentally voted 
Ponta Delgada and the entire Azores group quite the 
right thing in the right place. 



Around the World in a Year 



By this time the passengers had acquired their sea- 
legs and further "fresh gales" lost some of their ter- 
rors. Being seated at the captain's table we were fa- 
vored with ship news at first hand and entertained with 
that flow of sense and humor which characterizes Cap- 
tain McCawley of the great ship "Republic," fifteen 
thousand tons — as rugged a sailor as ever passenger 
tied to. At least one of his short dinner-table stories shall 
find a place here. He said he was once visiting outlying 
docks near Liverpool to inspect a vessel which a friend 
thought of buying and was accosted by a stranger 
laboring-man who asked him to have some beer. Not 
to appear proud and being thirsty, he accepted and 
they turned into the nearest public house. While wait- 
ing to be served a friend of the laborer joined them. 
He was over six feet, weighed more than three hun- 
dred and had a face as red as a boiled lobster — a regu- 
lar soaker. The newcomer was asked what he would 
have, and in a beer-broken guttural he drawled, 
"Gimme er pint, and say — if I don't drink it — make 
me." As captains' stories go, was not that a good one? 

There was quite the usual amount of gambling, or 
should I say guessing, upon the daily run. Between 
hat pools, auction pools and side bets the wheel of 
fortune was kept spinning merrily and just a tinge of 
business given to pleasure. I was made to feel how 
very wicked it all is when you do not win once, even 
though you go into everything. 

At noon on the third or fourth day I was chatting 
in the smoking-room with an up-to-date young man 
from Texas when the run for the previous twenty-four 
hours was announced. In less time than it takes to tell 
it — without even breaking the thread of the conversa- 



Across the Atlantic 7 

tion and apparently without a qualm— the Texan pro- 
duced his roll and handed out three crisp hundred- 
dollar bills to another of the passengers who had saun- 
tered in. The bet, I learned, was whether the miles run 
would be above or below a certain number — a line which 
proved to be only seven out of true. Such thing's may 
be considered mere pastime in Texas, but further east 
they would be sure it was pure gambling and something 
akin to betting on the turn of a card. The young Texan 
showed the true sporting temper; and the winner, a 
returning Klondiker, of whom it was said he had 
"struck it rich," simply wrapped the stuff round his 
own pile — not even saying, Thank you ! In Texas and 
the Klondike they know just how to do such things. 

I believe the rule is that a man may tell a story about 
himself if it be at his own expense and is not done 
often. One other happening around our captain's 
board comes under that head. Waiting till I had the 
ear of the table, as it were, I on an occasion ventured 
the remark: "I have been thinking what I would do if 
suddenly put in charge of a big passenger ship near- 
ing land on a dark night, and have concluded I would 
drop the anchor, turn on the searchlight and holler" — 
sitting back with the temporary satisfaction that I had 
made myself quite solid with the captain. I reckoned 
though without my host, for in his best basso came : 
' ' The proper place for a man in such a panic is a sani- 
tarium, not the bridge." Was not my serio-comic 
treated rather harshly? But when you come to think 
of it, how well in that answer the captain sustained his 
deep-sea dignity. It was a perfectly crushing blow at 
the speaker, but his own fearlessness was most art- 
lessly brought into the limelight, so to speak. I for- 



8 Around the World in a Year 

gave him quickly, had paid for my tuition and tried to 
join in the laughter. 

Let me, without embellishment, recount another hap- 
pening on this voyage — a trifle also, but to us looking 
for divertisement an incident somewhat amusing. On 
the second day out a young Syrian, a low-bred pushing- 
fellow, garbed as an Italian peasant, attracted general 
attention as he paced the saloon deck without any coat, 
wearing instead a tight-fitting and fearfully-striped 
sweater. Our attention was first called when, strik- 
ing an attitude and beating his breast, he made fierce 
answer to something said by the purser, "No; me no 
Italiano ! Me eat Italianos ! ' ' — making his status as 
respected Italy quite clear. It seems he was a peddler, 
in good standing as such, who shipped in the steerage ; 
but, becoming more satisfied with his quality as a mer- 
chant than with the treatment accorded the steerage, 
paid the difference and on this second day had moved 
to the first cabin. Of course he was devoid of that 
which passes as politeness, and he carried himself dur- 
ing his first day on the upper deck in very assertive 
fashion. To play the game he probably thought it nec- 
essary. At his first meal in the saloon — a dinner— he 
was shown to a seat at a table where were seated a 
particularly stiff-necked lot. He started in by gorging 
himself as if at a trough, asking for about everything 
on the card — including all the varieties of potatoes 
and bread. Glancing to the right he espied his neigh- 
bor's uncorked bottle of wine and thought he scented 
a perquisite of the cabin passenger — that the company 
were serving wine ad lib. He clutched the bottle and 
filled and drank successive bumpers until, actually, the 
bottle was drained- — to the amazement of the owner and 



Across the Atlantic 



the amusement of all at the table, as well as the attend- 
ing stewards. After finishing the bottle, his conversa- 
tional powers being wakened, he turned on the owner, 
saying, "Me finds the wine very bad. The company 
can afford to give better," and wound up by advising 
him to order some other kind, saying something about 
champagne. The well-bred proprietor of the wine thus 
consumed, appearing quite to acquiesce, simply said 
"All right!" while the others at the table could, of 
course, hardly restrain their laughter. 

His was simply another case of vaulting ambition 
coming to grief. I watched him during the voyage, by 
degrees becoming quite tamed and finding company 
only with stewards. I was sorry for him, and really 
believe he would have been happier in the steerage. 
Social lines as deeply dented as these are impassable, 
even at sea. Cleanliness, good manners and education 
are very selfish commodities. 



GIBRALTAR 

We steamed through the straits in the early morning. 
The stormy Atlantic was passed and, to me, the "Rock" 
loomed grander than ever. A stop of four hours was 
made. Most of the passengers landed and roamed or 
drove over the place. Having spent two weeks there 
only three years before, the mole, the Moorish castle, 
barracks, galleries and guns did not appeal to me as 
much as the renewal of some exceedingly pleasant ac- 
quaintances. The narrow and crooked main street 
swarmed, as I believe it always does, with peddlers, 
fakers and the motley crowd of Spaniards — variegated 
with Moors and their Arab dress. 

Thousands of Spaniards were at work on the new 
mole and fortifications. They are driven out at gun- 
fire in the early evening and the gates are barred behind 
them — to return to their toil by the same sign in the 
morning. The conquerors do not propose to be taken 
unawares or to harbor overnight a host of Spaniards 
concerned in recovering their own; who by concerted 
action might try to rush the place. The few Spaniards 
allowed to live in Gibraltar, a very inferior lot, are 
opprobriously called "Scorpions." They cling to the 
rock. No wonder the British are proud of their Pillar 
of Hercules, this impregnable outpost of empire. Its 
very conformation indicates the great uses to which it 
is put. It frowns down upon Spain from which it was 
wrenched, facing her and the "Neutral Ground" with 
near fifteen hundred feet of beetling sheer, and bows 



Gibraltar 1 1 

and clips to the Mediterranean, of which its rulers are 
the masters. That peculiar cloud called, locally, the 
"Levanter," which usually envelops its top or hovers 
overhead even when the sky is otherwise cloudless, is a 
sort of silent attornment to greatness. From the 
piazzas of the beautiful hotel "Reina Christina," at 
Algeciras, just across the bay, I have often contem- 
plated this strange halo and been confirmed in my be- 
lief in the fitness of things. Such a grand rock, rising 
at the meeting-place of oceans, embalmed with such 
historic interest, upon which so much that is momen- 
tous has hinged and is hinging, is fittingly displayed 
by this cloud. A jingo in any sort of condition would 
be sure it was heaven's visa upon earth's greatest mark 
— and would reserve all music rights. 

Enough of star-gazing sentimentality. Let us come 
to earth, attend to our journey and look Gibraltar in 
the face from much lower levels. Is it not a rather 
curious fact that the only monkeys in the wild state 
in Europe to-day are denizens here of these more or 
less inaccessible heights! They are apes of the same 
species as those in Barbary. A story told me by a 
British soldier on our former visit to Gibraltar about 
these queerly disposed simians may be worth while. 
I had strolled by the Gardens and reached bare Point 
Europa, which juts into the sea at the south end. He 
was doing guard duty, and, while standing at his turn- 
ing-point, I chatted on and off with him as he went 
his rounds. The monkeys, he said, when seen at all, 
were generally at the Point — seldom anywhere else 
and only at night. They made him a little nervous be- 
cause of their stealthy and uncertain approach. His 
first acquaintance with them was made on a certain 



12 Around the World in a Year 

very dark night while standing at complete rest near 
the signal-frame against which I was then leaning; 
when, without his being aware of its presence and with- 
out a sound, one of them jumped from the frame where 
it had been roosting to his shoulder. He said it was so 
sudden it nearly dropped him. No one can wonder 
at that, for in the dead of a dark night Point Europa 
must be one of the loneliest places on earth. How near 
are the heroics to the ridiculous ! Here, the great 
fortress, proved impregnable even to combined attack; 
there, the British soldier, representative of a mighty 
empire and defender of the fortress, thinking now, 
however, onty of distant home; when suddenly from 
somewhere out of the pitchy dark a something, seem- 
ingly all legs and wings, alights on the shoulder of this 
man of war and — he promptly collapses. For the in- 
stant were not the very bulwarks of empire threatened 
and breach made in a giant scheme of defense, or 
words to that effect! At any rate, those wild monkeys 
of Gibraltar are a curious survival. 

We did not find time, as we would have liked, to 
cross the bay to that dreamy village of Algeciras, where 
delegates were gathering for the international con- 
gress on the affairs of Morocco. Recollections of our 
stay there were still fresh and very pleasant. 

The "Republic" did the four hundred and nine miles 
from Gibraltar to Algiers in twenty-eight hours, most 
of the while through a thick mist and in generally dis- 
agreeable weather ; but, for my party, I can report that 
all were well and happy. 



ALGIERS 

The sea was very rough; it was cold as March is at 
home and it was raining- when the Franco-African city 
of Algiers was introduced. The great breakwater there 
was having the time of its life, as we afterwards heard. 
It looked like a great dam that was doomed every time 
the angry sea made its rush, completely overwhelming 
it. It held, however, and a few days afterwards we 
might have been seen strolling upon it, twenty feet 
above any danger. No pilot came out to meet us. I am 
not sure he could have boarded us if one had done so, 
it was so tempestuous. Our captain, though, was equal 
to the occasion. To moor a vessel of fifteen thousand 
tons in a crowded mole in such wind and sea must surely 
be a job calling loudly for experience. Things went 
well until the first great stern-hawser snapped in reply 
to the unusual strain, and before a second, which was 
being warped, could come to its support. Swinging then 
stern-loose to leeward on bow anchors we came within 
a very little of striking a Russian cruiser; but serious 
accident was averted by skilful maneuvering, and the 
"Republic" was soon securely tethered to the mole of 
Algiers. 

It was very dark and still rough when we dropped 
into a small boat and landed. I saw a fat lady within 
an ace of becoming food for fish. Only a few, except 
those who were to stay, ventured ashore. There was 
utter lack of attention on the part of the White Star 
Company. No facilities were furnished or heed given 

13 



14 Around the World in a Year 

to those of us who made this landing. The company, 
having advertised the stop at this important point, 
should, it seems to me, have had a tender in waiting 
or at least some person at the landing-stage to receive 
and protect its patrons from the howling Arabs, bent 
only on fleecing them. It was the subject of general 
complaint very loudly voiced then, and thereafter. 
However, we got ashore safely, though wet and dis- 
gruntled — a record two passengers from the Marseilles 
liner, which came in only an hour before, did not reach, 
for both went in. One clung on, but the other had to 
swim for it. It was rough. 

Under the circumstances, how could first impressions 
of Algiers be other than disappointing? We recognized 
at once, though, that here the French are attempting 
another Paris. But where were "Afric's sunny foun- 
tains"! It was positively cold. At every step we were 
reminded <of the beautiful city on- the Seine. No 
city- in France looks so like Paris as Algiers. Of 
course that may be without there being any great simi- 
larity. There are no Champs Elysees, Notre Dame, 
Place de la Concorde, Grand Opera House, Catacombs 
and Louvre. But there is a mile or more of fine boule- 
vard lined with arcaded walkways quite like the Rivoli 
or Rue Castiglione, and the cafes are unmistakably 
Parisian. In some things old Paris is outdone, for 
here is the blue Mediterranean, here the snow-capped 
Atlas Mountains and here the Arab. 

We were just a week in Algiers ; and, for us, the most 
interesting sights were in the old part or Arab-town. 
It is a labyrinth of steep, dark, tortuous alleys lined 
with overhanging houses, with windows that are only 
little barred loopholes or niches. Some of the alleys 




Scene in Arab-town, Algiers. 



Algiers 17 

are so narrow that people cannot pass without sidling. 
Arab-town is being crowded and gradually surrounded. 
This has been going on ever since the French occupa- 
tion in 1830, and seventy-five years of contiguity have 
wrought great change. I have been in Morocco, where 
civilization is almost unknown, and studied the -native 
tribes there. From careful comparison I feel that there 
is no risk in stating the opinion that the fanaticism and 
ferocity, and much of the picturesqueness, in the Moroc- 
can type are wanting among the Algerians. In Morocco 
the Arab has always been dominant. Everything is 
just as it always was, and for a white to attempt to 
travel in the interior without an armed force and safe 
passport from the Sultan, would be madness. And if 
the Sultan's passport were vised by Kaisuli, the rebel 
chieftain, much would be added to its value. Here in 
Algiers, while the Arab maintains to a remarkable de- 
gree his native dignity of mien — which, it seems, no 
amount of dirt or poverty can deflect — it is a dignity 
chastened by overmuch contact with a more resourceful 
race. In Morocco a Christian would be in mortal dan- 
ger were he to attempt to enter a mosque ; and human 
heads are still hung in the market-place — I saw one in 
Tangier three years ago — where entrails are sold for 
food and fetich doctors ply their trade. Here in 
Algiers you may enter any mosque, and while in some 
the prayer-rugs must not be defiled by Caucasian feet, 
in others the stranger can roam at will if he but rents 
their slippers. 

We were fortunate in our selection of a guide in 
Algiers. He was a Swiss gentleman, for forty years a 
resident. From him and others we learned how com- 
pletely the country is under French control; that the 



1 8 Around the World in a Year 

Dey of Algiers is an office now obsolete, the last Dey 
having been packed off to Italy to enjoy his pension; 
and that there is now no Arab Governor, but only the 
semblance of one, a sort of chief or bashaw who re- 
ceives his appointment from the French. Even the 
mosques are maintained by the French, and some of 
them have been appropriated for new and quite dif- 
ferent uses. For instance, the Roman Catholic cathe- 
dral was originally a mosque, and the Governor's 
winter palace and the archbishop 's residence were once 
both parts of the same. France has always governed 
Algeria with an iron hand. She is an unpopular mis- 
tress here, and needs all of her sixty thousand sol- 
diers to keep things quiet. The country fell into her 
hands without many preliminaries. The wish to take 
was of course soon fortified by opportunity, or rather 
excuse. The Algerians were in " default to French 
creditors for a comparatively small sum; the French 
consul pressed sufficiently hard and in such a manner 
for payment that the Sultan struck him with his fan. 
The consul appeared angry and disappeared, and the 
waiting French military forces were not long in com- 
ing. Since then the native has been jostled and tamed 
so that he is but a shadow of his former estate. The 
Algerian gentleman of authentic and comparatively 
recent history, he of the black flag, brandishing a knife 
in each hand with a third between his teeth, who for 
centuries levied toll on all passing vessels — the terri- 
ble Barbary pirate — has gone. His posterity seemed 
spiritless and mean in comparison with the men of 
Morocco. The French have already taught them to sit 
around cafes and, disregarding their Koran, to drink 
absinthe. In time they may follow further — perhaps 



Algiers 1 9 

use perfume and battle with confetti. Lo, the poor 
Algerian ! 

The deposed Queen of Madagascar has been an un- 
willing resident of Algiers for several years. She 
was deported thither by the French, who took from her 
her island kingdom in the Indian Ocean. I never knew 
the reason or excuse for this, but then Great Powers 
are their own sufficient excuse. She is not allowed to 
leave Algiers. Early in her exile she was permitted to 
visit Paris, which it seems she prefers to Algiers, but 
the government cut her stay there short when it was 
noticed that much was made of her by the Orleanists. 
It feared that the monarchial sentiment was being 
fostered. At the outset the government furnished her 
with a villa in Algiers, a brougham and sixty thousand 
francs a year spending money. Not an illiberal ar- 
rangement upon its face, surely. The spending-money, 
however, was summarily cut in two when one morning 
she was caught attempting an unannounced and dis- 
guised hegira. Being apprehended, the subsidy was 
not only reduced to thirty thousand francs, but a charm- 
ing though vigilant French lady was added to her 
entourage, whose duty it is not only to make her stay 
in Algiers pleasant, but — to make her stay. 

The Queen is much liked in Algiers, and no important 
social function is complete unless she condescends to 
lend her presence, which, I understand, she frequently 
and very graciously does. We were glad to find our let- 
ters to Algiers sufficient to procure an audience with 
the ex-Queen by her special appointment. As her villa 
grounds adjoin those of the Mustapha Palace Hotel, 
where we lived, state carriages were dispensed with. 
Being ushered into the audience-chamber, her majesty 



20 Around the World in a Year 

soon appeared and we were formally announced. After 
our credentials had been read aloud we were presented 
to her sister, the Princess, and then bidden to be seated. 
She was most gracious throughout. My wife and 
daughter were charmed with her. She looks thirty- 
five, is dark nearly to black, dignified, and spoke in 
French. Her countenance and conversation both indi- 
cate quick intelligence. She flattered our conceit by 
stating that she recalled but one other American who 
had been received in this personal way. The Queen 
spoke of having recently been to the ball given on 
Admiral Sigsbee's flagship, and inquired after a cer- 
tain American lady who had taken much interest in the 
temperance cause in Madagascar. Such reference as 
may have been made to affairs of state must, of course, 
be kept secret. Suffice it to say the very friendly rela- 
tions which have always existed between the United 
States and Madagascar were distinctly strengthened. 
We went with some curiosity in our craniums. We cer- 
tainly came away with much respect for the deposed 
Queen of all the Madagascars. 

Algiers is becoming a sort of House of Detention for 
captive sovereigns. The Prince of Annam is there also. 
His long stay has been made so agreeable for him 
that it is believed he has ceased to pine for his Asiatic 
principality, its sacred white elephants and all. He is 
a dark, smooth-faced gentleman about forty-five; is 
reputed to be rich, plays tennis, recently married a 
French lady and dresses in English fashion — except 
for a Mongolian queue wound about his back-head. 

We deserted the "Republic" and her rugged com- 
mander here in Algiers and left her to continue the voy- 
age to Genoa and Naples as best she could without us. 



Algiers 21 

Perhaps this is as good a time as any to consult the rec- 
ord made during the voyage and to compile the vital and 
other statistics of a sailing begun on that Friday the 
twenty-sixth. Here it is : unusually bad weather on 
the Atlantic; the most violent storm for years on the 
Mediterranean; delay at Genoa because of a strike; 
one of her sailors fell down a hatch and badly hurt ; and 
a passenger, though a multi-millionaire, buried at sea. 
There was trouble and a Friday seen in conjunction 
again, and the double thirteen in the twenty-six did 
not help matters either, you may be sure. Does it not 
show to an absolute certainty how a good ship can go 
wrong when the fates are defied! 

We much enjoyed our week in Algiers and some new 
friends we left there, notwithstanding it either rained 
or threatened to rain about all the time. After doing 
the town we took the drives along the shore, up the 
heights and out to the deserted monastery. We also 
stored away a lot of real rest in the quiet of the hotel 
gardens, and at sunset a stroll in the woods nearby was 
delightfully soothing. The villa district of Algiers we 
think more beautiful than any in the Riviera or even 
at much-sung Florence. The country is more diversi- 
fied, the views even lovelier. Picture, if you will, a 
single scene from the aerial gardens of our hotel in 
the heart of this villa district, near to the sea, yet five 
hundred feet above it. In the distance the blue expanse 
of the Mediterranean ; at our feet the Bay of Algiers ; 
to the left the mole and shipping, with a Russian cruiser 
making out, bound home to unhappy Russia; the city 
rising tier on tier to the hill-top crowned by the ancient 
Moorish citadel and the modern fortifications, from 
which come sounds of martial music ; to the left again, 



22 Around the World in a Year 

the well-marked, multi-colored, congested and myste- 
rious Arab quarter sheltering near a hundred thou- 
sand offspring of the desert. Below is the Governor- 
General's summer palace and park; and the villa-prison 
of the Madagascan Queen is right next us on the left. 
In front and just under the cliff is the "Champs des 
Manoeuvres," an extensive plain like unto the Champs 
de Mars, at the moment alive with Chasseurs d'Afrique, 
the most famous cavalry regiment of France, at drill, 
and who are now deploying and charging as if to re- 
cover Alsace and Lorraine. Notice also the many 
beautiful villas to the right, the left and below, — shin- 
ing white amid richest verdure, — and scent, if you will, 
the orange trees hanging heavy with ripe fruit. Then 
but turn on your heels and see the snow-capped Atlas 
Mountains, quite near. Over all these things fancy 
balmy and unclouded sunlight bringing everything into 
clearest outline, and you have a scene such as we en- 
joyed in Algiers, and which, after many journeyings in 
many lands, for innate beauty and interest, is in my 
opinion unsurpassed. 



ALGIERS TO GENOA 

We regretted leaving Algiers without a visit to 
Biskra and Tunis. Indeed, we pined for Biskra, which 
lies beyond the Atlas Mountains and is on the edge of 
the desert, between one and two days' journey away. 
A flying trip there was attempted, but snow blocked 
the passes — a snow blockade in Africa ! — and land- 
slides made the road impassable. To wait for matters 
to mend was out of the question, because we were booked 
to leave Brindisi for Port Said and Cairo on February 
18th. If we were to see Cairo in season or go up the 
Nile this year, that Brindisi engagement had to be 
kept. So after a week thus pleasantly spent at Algiers, 
we left by the White Star "Romanic" for Naples. The 
ship was scheduled to stop at Genoa for a day, to give 
her company a look in, and to make Naples on the 
afternoon of the 17th. Life for us was flowing very 
smoothly, but we might have confessed to some un- 
easiness, for the ship had to make her schedule into 
Naples to the hour, or our important Brindisi engage- 
ment would be an impossibility. 

The five hundred and twenty-seven miles between 
Algiers and Genoa were done in fine weather, over a 
considerate sea and on time. We expected to renew 
an acquaintance with Sardinia on the way, but did not, 
owing to the fact that rather more north than is usual 
was put into the course. Instead, the land first sighted 
was the snow-topped Maritime Alps, which descend 
boldly and majestically to the shore all the way from 

23 



24 Around the World in a Year 

Genoa nearly to Nice. The approach by sea to Genoa 
was new to us and quite interesting. It is Italy's 
greatest port, and the many vessels in harbor made me 
think it compares with New York in amount of ship- 
ping. I never before fully appreciated its maritime 
importance. 

The day at Genoa was passed quietly. Of course we 
went again to the Campo Santo, that greatest of mod- 
ern sculpture galleries. The fact that it is a burial- 
place is quite incidental and but furnishes the theme. 
Travelers from all countries do not flock there be- 
cause of those buried there, but because of the wealth 
of sculpture that marks the places of their burial. Much 
of it is exceedingly fine and some wonderfully so. The 
two standing figures showing the beautiful but horrified 
girl in the clutches of death she is resisting, is truly a 
masterpiece, gruesome but very grand; and the figure 
of the Capucin at his devotions is another monument 
which we thought very realistic and of surpassing 
merit. 

The four sculptors considered to have done the great- 
est work were named to us, and we found their insignia 
on those monuments which most attracted attention. 
Just before finishing our walk an old man in a long 
cloak came sauntering along. It was Sacramana of 
Florence, one of that very four, probably contemplating 
his own work and studying that of his colleagues. In- 
stinctively we stopped and made respectful saluta- 
tion. In a moment enough was said and done in two 
languages to make it clear we recognized him and were 
thanking him for the satisfaction his masterpieces had 
given us. He halted and doffed his hat, his eyes 
beaming with pleasure and his face reddening with 



Algiers to Genoa 27 

modesty. It was all so unstudied, this stranger homage 
to genius, its own sufficient introduction. The old man 
had long hair, a classic face and noble mien. Truly, he 
looked the role and acted the part. 

On the way back to the ship we tried for another 
sight of the house in which Columbus was born. b Hav- 
ing visited it on a former occasion, we knew the loca- 
tion in a general way. But, do you believe, we failed 
to find it, though inquiry was made of at least half a 
dozen shopkeepers and others, and we had to give it 
up or risk missing the ship. Such is fame. A man 
may discover a hemisphere and yet his birthplace be 
unknown to those living in its immediate neighborhood. 



GENOA TO NAPLES 

A fine day and a smooth sea cheered us on these 
three hundred and forty-six miles of the way. During 
the night we passed the little island of Elba where was 
first penned and from which burst that human cyclone 
to work out the climax of his career in the hundred days 
ending in Waterloo. I should have liked to see it. 

The run down along the peninsula was full of in- 
terest. The mouth of "Old Father Tiber" and the 
yellowing of the sea thereat was a sight calculated to 
make a thoughtful man think. Then followed the Capi- 
toline Hill, just behind which we knew Rome lay. The 
Campagna and, lower down, the pestilential Pontine 
marshes were pointed out. All passed in near review, 
adding their full quota to our reveries. Then came the 
Bay of Naples, looking beautiful, of course; but there 
was a haze, and we must admit our recollection of its 
striking beauty was somewhat dimmed. There, though, 
was Ischia ; there belching Vesuvius ; there the cliffs of 
Sorrento and there also romantic Capri. Naples, with 
its rich colorings, Roman ruins and fine public build- 
ings, adds its quota of beauty to that scene, but as a 
truthful chronicler I must say closer acquaintance with 
its water-front discloses a degree of dilapidation quite 
repulsive, which but few other cities can equal. 

We had not anchored before we were surrounded by 
a lot of small boats, and while waiting for the tender 
they furnished a plenty of entertainment. Some car- 
ried vendors of coral and fruit and others musicians 

28 



Genoa to Naples 29 

and singing girls, all with uplifted faces and eyes wist- 
ful and a trifle watery. A big fellow clad in a breech- 
cloth jumped from one of the boats and gave a fine 
exhibition of diving. We had seen him there before. 
His general invitation to toss pennies into the bay was 
quite freely accepted. He followed fast, and in a radius 
of seventy-five feet never, as far as I saw, scored a miss. 
The clear water of the bay allowed us to keep him in 
sight while sounding deep after the rapidly descend- 
ing coin. He had no pockets, but before the tender 
reached us and broke up the show he had filled first 
his cheeks and then his toes with the coins. All this 
entertainment for a measure of pennies. The dollar in 
America is said to be almighty. In Italy coppers show 
considerable strength. 



NAPLES TO BRINDISI 

Naples, this time, was little more than a name on our 
line of travel, for we took the first train out of it to 
Brindisi, with just time for a drive about the city 
collecting tickets and letters — and then for dinner 
at the hotel and sleep. The city looked very crowded 
and the common people very dirty. Notwithstand- 
ing the many shiploads who have emigrated, the 
population of Naples is still badly congested. It may 
not be generally known that Naples was once a Roman 
penal colony, and that to this day the Italian of Rome, 
Florence or Milan looks with a certain condescension 
upon him from Naples or Sicily. 

The all-day railroad journey from Naples to Brin- 
disi was tiresome and uninteresting. The hotel was 
left so early and hurriedly that there was not time for 
breakfast. We hoped to be able to forage on the coun- 
try while en route; but the dried fish and peasant bread 
to be had at the dirty little stations were too many 
for our dainty daughter; and, consequently, even with 
the aid of oranges and chocolate, we brought her into 
Brindisi that night about ready to faint. 

The way there includes a slow climb of several thou- 
sand feet up the Apennines. At the outset it runs 
close under the plateau at the foot of Vesuvius where, 
they say, are the once buried cities of Pompeii and 
Herculaneum. We had to take their word for it, as, 
although this was our second visit to Naples, we had 

30 



Naples to Brindisi 3 1 

never seen either. It is well to have something left 
for which to live. 

On the way to Brindisi we learned, if never before, 
of the extreme poverty of the people of southern Italy. 
No wonder two dollars a day in the States attracts. 
On the other hand, while they will probably .handle 
much more money in America and eat oftener of meat, 
they will find that house-rent is much dearer, meat 
costs money and that their work in the ditches is hard 
and unhealthy. I fancy that many of them in America 
often pine for the sunn3 T slopes of their own fair land. 

The train reached Brindisi soon after dark, and while 
talking with a courier on the platform a motley group 
of depot loiterers gathered close. When we emerged 
and were confronted at the gate by the ticket-taker, I 
felt for the three railroad tickets from Naples which, 
for readiness, had just been placed in an outside pocket, 
and they were gone. A clear case of Brindisi pick- 
pocket. The situation was made known to the gentle- 
man at the gate, but he held firm — was very sorry, as we 
must have tickets. Under their rules all tickets are taken 
up at the gate on arrival, under penalty of further 
purchase or an impasse. It looked as if we were out 
and injured about twenty-four dollars' worth. But, as 
ever, the occasion produces the man. So now, while re- 
turning to the gate after a fruitless search of the com- 
partment just vacated, a hotel runner edged up and 
made things plain, whispering the suggestion that ten 
lire (two dollars) to the gatekeeper would square 
things. Willingness being displayed, he told me to 
pass right along, give no attention to the gateman and 
pay up when outside. The scheme worked like a charm. 
Somehow the man at the gate had seen a light. The 



32 Around the World in a Year 

bars were up. After getting my party and baggage 
safely away I was ready to carry out my part, and 
looked around for a collector. Sure enough, in the half- 
light out he came furtive and catlike, uniform and all. 
A note of the realm for ten lire was covertly placed 
in an itching palm and the skulduglery was complete. 
The company was not out in the transaction, for it got 
its money. The gateman, though, held us up on the 
plea of enforcing a regulation — until he got his price. 
He himself is now held up as a grafter who traded on a 
passenger's misfortune. And that Brindisi pickpocket, 
where did he land? He took all there was in the pocket, 
and probably would have been better pleased if it had 
been my entire birthright; but, unless he too was in 
collusion with the gatekeeper, he got nothing but the 
ashes of hope — namely, disappointment. 



BRINDISI TO PORT SAID 

It was after dark and raining when we boarded the 
P. & 0. mail-boat "Isis" at Brindisi for Port Said. She 
looked to us like a private yacht, so sharp and trim 
was she, and little withal. In the course of the voyage 
Captain Watkins told me she and a sister ship are the 
fastest long-distance craft on the Mediterranean; that 
when behind time she reels off twenty-seven knots, and 
that while some of the torpedo boats equal it for short 
distances, none of them could do the nine hundred and 
twenty miles to Port Said at the rate of speed re- 
quired to keep her contract as the King's mail carrier. 
The business of governing vast colonies at great dis- 
tance calls for high speed in mail transmission. 

She did her twenty-one knots, which is twenty-three 
miles, during nearly every hour of the two days and 
part of the three nights we were aboard. I never trav- 
eled so fast at sea. A regular sea-racer, her twin 
screws drove her nearly as fast as any horse can trot. 
What would have happened if we had veered from the 
course and banged with such speed against any of those 
little rocky islets that rose so abruptly in our path, 
beggars the imagination. This nightmare of a thought 
was emphasized in me on the second night out. It was 
pitchy dark, without either moon or stars; and, alone 
on the deck, I saw we were approaching some object 
even blacker than the night. Nothing else indicated 
it. We rushed past quite close to the spectre and — 
well, breathing became easier. The captain afterwards 

33 



34 Around the World in a Year 

told me it was the island of Ova, one of the smallest 
of the Ionian group. The importance of this India mail 
service requires the carriers to take the very shortest 
route ; and, be the night bright or black, it must be kept 
or schedule time will not. When crossing the Atlantic 
I recall reaching the deliberate conclusion that the cap- 
tain on the bridge of a great passenger ship nearing 
land in the dead hours of a dark night, or in fog or 
violent storm, occupies a place which should command 
more respect than that of the judge of a high court — 
and no one will accuse me of belittling a high court. 
Judges and courts frequently disagree and overrule 
each other; and courts of last resort are held by 
several judges acting by a majority — because often 
divided. Mistakes are corrected and the responsibility 
distributed. But the lone captain's mistake admits of 
no correction, nor can he divide his responsibility with 
any one. No wonder captains become grizzled and 
gruff. 

There were less than a dozen passengers on the 
"Isis" when she left Brindisi at midnight on arrival 
of the fast London express which had hurried twenty 
tons of mail-matter to her, a freight, no doubt, of vastly 
more importance than her few passengers. At dawn 
we were in the Ionian Sea abreast of Corfu, the reputed 
birthplace of Ulysses of the Odyssey, with the snow- 
capped Albanian mountains beyond, where the men, as 
warlike and turbulent a race as can be found, dress in 
short skirts and look like ballet-dancers. Mounts Ossa, 
Pelion and Parnassus were in the neighborhood. There 
are a lot of old-timers for you. I was first on deck, and 
much enjoyed an early morning walk amid those classic 
scenes, notwithstanding the sea was a bit trying to the 



Brindisi to Port Said 35 

nerves. The beautiful island of Ithaca was skirted 
close, with Cephalonia and Zante on the side and not 
far off. I should suppose from their appearance that 
all are of volcanic origin. They are very precipitous. 
I wonder at the amount of history which clings to 
their steep sides. They look as if a Harlem goat could 
hardly hang on; and that, though successful, even its 
living would not be assured. From the sea they make 
a peculiarly beautiful picture, and for luxuriance per- 
haps depend upon their other or reverse sides. 

On the morning of the second day we awoke to find 
that we were passing to the south of Crete. We were 
not near enough to discern much, but there it was, the 
valorous little land which held out against the Turk for 
thirty years and, in 1897, when Greece came to her 
aid, conquered an independence under the protection 
and soldiery of the Powers. I believe Turkey does not 
recognize the independence; but, as with Egypt, that 
seems to make little difference. After watching Crete 
drop back into the sea we were once again out of sight 
of land, to remain so till the morrow morning, when, 
we were advised, Port Said would be reached. We 
enjoyed the speed and the beautiful weather as much 
as we could, but, speaking for myself, I must confess 
that the vibration of the mighty engines and a cross 
sea gave many a qualm. 

Early the third morning we were waked by what may 
be termed a violent shock of perfect quiet, which fol- 
lowed the quitting of the great engines of our little 
mail-boat — the nine hundred and twenty miles had been 
covered right on time and Port Said showed through 
the port-hole. Very soon the clatter and splash of the 
Egyptian boatmen coming for us were heard. 



PORT SAID TO CAIRO 

At Port Said we got our first sight of the Suez Canal, 
and, of course being truly thankful, gasped our pro- 
found respects. We saw the British guardship on its 
station at the mouth of the canal and a Russian ship- 
of-war close by. We marveled at this prevalence of 
Russian ships of the line in the Mediterranean, consid- 
ering the very dreadful weather they encountered so 
recently in the Sea of Japan. 

Bathed in the pure morning light Port Said looked 
proper enough; but we had Kipling's word for it that 
here "there ain't no ten commandments," and our 
suspicions rested upon everything and everybody, es- 
pecially the latter. After the twenty tons of mail had 
been entrusted to the big waiting "P. & 0." which 
hurried it to Bombay, we were landed. The merely 
academic question Kipling's reflection raises could not 
be investigated, for we were made out of breath by a 
rumor that we could not catch the Cairo train. We did 
though, the horses being good enough. 

The railroad to Cairo skirts the Suez Canal for sev- 
eral hours, passing through Tel-el-Kebir, where, in 
1882, Wolseley rushed the Egyptians; giving them 
their first taste of the latest of their long line of con- 
querors. Thence to Ismailia, which owes its creation to 
the canal and its name to the spendthrift Khedive who 
did so much to promote the digging of it. Here, we 
were told, the engineers and managers of the canal 
find convenient residence — it being half-way between 

36 



Port Said to Cairo 37 

Port Said and Suez, where the canal begins and ends. 
At Ismailia the canal is abruptly left and the way to 
Cairo is through the delta district, as well-favored and 
fertile a country as can be found anywhere. Every 
yard was heavy with the growing crop, or being 
prepared for another. For hours we watched the 
natives scurrying about on donkeys and camels, driv- 
ing their sheep and goats or plowing the rich delta 
with wooden plows hitched to nondescript and ridicu- 
lous teams — as often as not a camel and donkey or else 
a buffalo and donkey. The outlook from the car win- 
dow was most prosperous-seeming and picturesque. 
During all recorded time the flat Nile delta has been 
the granary and dependence of desert-lined Egypt. 
Late in the afternoon the ancient citadel of Cairo came 
into view, and we were soon on the way to Shepheard's 
Hotel. 



CAIItO 

As viewed through our spectacles Cairo is essen- 
tially Oriental, and yet thoroughly up-to-date. Its 
geographical situation gives to it a character all its 
own. It is at the corner of three continents ; upon the 
Nile, which penetrates forty-two hundred miles into 
the darkest of them; near to the Suez Canal, the high- 
way to the ends of the world; and with the two great 
mysterious deserts at its door. It is therefore re- 
moved far from the commonplace. And the heart of 
Cairo is Shepheard's Hotel. No hotel in the world is 
more famous, and it has been famous for fifty years. 
To go to Cairo and not stay at Shepheard's, at least 
once, would be breaching the rule and taking chances. 
Those making subsequent visits may select a quieter 
place, and many do ; but for those making their initial 
visit, for those looking for things they can't wait for, 
Shepheard's naturally and justly has unrivaled claims. 
If you want to see the madding crowd at its maddest, — 
a crowd full of color and surprises, — if you want to see 
that crowd with ease and comfort, just settle yourself 
on the veranda, or "terrace" as it is called, at Shep- 
heard 's any day during the season, and look down upon 
it as it surges at your feet. Whether a mint julep 
would help matters I do not know, but should think 
any one who there required stimulant to key him up 
would go fast asleep during any last act. On the whole, 
I suggest that a wet towel would be better than the 
julep. 

38 



Cairo 



39 



From your comfortable perch you can always count 
upon seeing a most motley and interesting throng. 
Ranging from the Khedival equipage, preceded by out- 
runners and surrounded by clanging troopers, or some 
other such high-class show, down to money-changers, 
water-sellers and snake-charmers; while Copts, J-ews, 
Soudanese, Hindus and Arabs in their distinctive dress 
and complexions are mingled with veiled women, 
Dervishes, beggars and (in the season) the elite of our 
own civilization and well-dressed tourists. We were 
astonished at the number of native processions ; mostly 
marriage processions, funeral caravans or circumcision 
parties. In their marriage processions they escort 
the bride with much ceremony to the home of her 
prospective husband, whom she then usually casts eyes 
upon for the first time; the marriage broker and her 
parents having theretofore had sole charge. While on 
the way the girl, usually from ten to fourteen years 
of age, is supposed to be entirely screened from public 
view, immured in a glass-bodied hearse-like delivery 
cart with the curtains all drawn. I saw one little 
bride, though, pushing a curtain an inch or two aside 
and peeping out, intense trepidation and curiosity 
equally apparent, as she and her procession of relatives, 
girl friends and musicians were passing Shepheard's. 
Poor thing ! childhood was over and what was virtually 
a life-imprisonment awaited her. 

Circumcision parties frequently accompany these 
marriage processions. I saw some. The officiating 
barber rode in front with the mystic emblems of his 
office held aloft; while the innocent subject of it all, 
dressed in girl's clothes, in order to deceive and thwart 
the evil-eye, followed after; with parents and friends 



4o Around the World in a Year 

riding or walking, as their circumstances dictated. 
Speaking of hotels leads me, after years of depend- 
ence upon them and many tours about the world, 
and finally one all round the world, to say that the 
definition of a first-class hotel is : a place where the 
rich traveler finds fewest fleas and is overfed; where 
at least three times a day he distends his veins and 
stomach overmuch, and where he gets red, then pur- 
ple, and sometimes blue in his surrender to the French 
chef paid to tempt his appetite — no matter though 
nervous dyspepsia, disordered liver or apoplexy lurks. 
Luxury and overfeeding have probably had many more 
victims than poverty, even when it was backed by 
famine. If you have any doubt about this, carefully 
survey conditions during the serving of the last courses 
of a dinner at any first-class hotel on the Continent, or 
in the East. 

About the first thing we did after reaching Cairo and 
catching our breath, was to select a dragoman. Abbas 
Ali, who lives nigh unto the Pyramids — a tall, graceful 
Bedouin, twenty-six and speaking English — filled the 
place admirably. He became our interpreter, guide 
and friend while we were in or about Cairo. The cab- 
men did not have us quite to themselves; fakers were 
driven off and we learned where best to make pur- 
chases. He had a number of chances to plunder us, 
but disarmed even suspicion. I know this is a deal to 
say of any dragoman, for they are thought to be a very 
uncertain people ; but this man is a Bedouin and you 
must let me speak of him as we found him. If the 
mention does Abbas any good, he is entitled to it. 

In a few days, with the aid of Abbas, we were on 
terms with the Museum, the palaces of Ismail, the 



Cai 



airo 



41 



mosques, the tombs of the Khalifs and of the Mame- 
lukes, with Old Cairo or the native quarter, its Muski 
and bazaar, the race-course, the citadel, and much else. 
AVe drove out to the Pyramids, which are about eight 
miles from Cairo. They are reached by a fine broad 
road shaded with tall mimosas and bordered with fields 
of waving wheat, a few fine residences and one of the 
huge palaces built by Ismail the Magnificent when 
squandering the country's substance and raising the 
debt which has since fettered Egypt and delivered her 
to the English. It is truly a beautiful driveway and 
the land immediately bordering it has, within only two 
years, been taken out of a category of values averag- 
ing one hundred pounds an acre and put in the hotel 
and villa class at three thousand pounds an acre. Con- 
siderable has been taken up already at the latter price, 
the prospect being that within the next ten years the 
whole eight miles from Cairo to the Pyramids will be 
lined with fine hotels and palatial residences. Such an 
awakening is Egypt undergoing. But I am digressing. 
From the Mena House, which is at the end of the broad 
road, we were taken by donkeys up the hill by the newer 
road as far as the Rest House at the foot of the Great 
Pyramid. The house (now closed except to the Khe- 
dive) and the road were both built by the same spend- 
thrift Ismail for Empress Eugenie when she was his 
guest of honor at the opening of the canal. They repre- 
sent a part of the four million pounds sterling which was 
expended by him in those opening ceremonies. Desert 
sand must not get into her dainty shoe, nor was she to 
view the great deeds of the Pharaohs without some idea 
of his own proportions. I think it highly probable that 
the zenith of Eugenie's brilliant reign was reached 



42 Around the World in a Year 

when she pressed the button, or whatever it was she did 
when the Suez Canal was declared by her open to the 
commerce of the world. How that world has turned 
against her since ! Sic transit gloria mundi. 

Now about those pyramids, the Great Pyramid first. 
Every inventory of the world's wonders ever made 
gave it a place; and, after gazing upon it, we have to 
admit the spell it casts. There are nine pyramids at 
Gizeh, all close together ; at least three are truly great, 
and though the two greatest of them each dwarfs the 
third, they cannot disturb its right to that title also. 
In color and size they are unearthly ; and some one has 
aptly said they suggest death and destiny. Let us settle 
the age of them as well as we can. Egyptologists claim 
to know to a certainty that the Great Pyramid was 
erected by King Cheops, after whom it is named, and 
that the second and third were erected by the kings who 
were his immediate successors in that fourth dynasty; 
but, as matter of fact, they can only guess at the dates 
of those reigns. Mariette, the discoverer, who was at 
one time director of the Egyptian Museum, calculated 
Cheops as 4202 b.c. Maspero, his successor, places it in 
4075 b.c. Doctor Steindorff, of Leipsic, director of the 
extensive excavations near the Pyramids being made by 
German societies, believes it to be 3900 b.c. ; and Doctor 
Budge, keeper of Egyptian antiquities at the British 
Museum, reckoned it at 3733 b.c. All of them in their 
writings show they have gone deep into the study of the 
various formulae which have been developed for the 
calculation, as well as such records and indications 
as there are, all of them admitted to be unsatisfactory 
— working out in centuries of discrepancy. By the way, 
vanity and candor constrain me to add that it was my 



Cairo 43 

good fortune to become pleasantly acquainted with M. 
Maspero while in Cairo and with Herr Steindorff while 
we were tenting near the Pyramids, and also with Doc- 
tor Budge when in London. They are conceded to be 
the three greatest living Egyptologists, and I am 
pleased to acknowledge receiving important assistance 
from each of them, most courteously bestowed. So 
that — returning to our topic — we laymen may be sure 
that the Pyramids of Grizeh are at least five thousand 
five hundred, and probably over six thousand years 
old. If we have the least bit of the antiquarian or the 
faintest trace of veneration in our make-up, surely here 
are monuments to give us pause. 

The reader may like a few more facts and figures. 
Let him recall that the Great Pyramid covers thirteen 
acres; that it is still four hundred and fifty-one feet 
high ; that the four sides — they face the cardinal points 
exactly — are each seven hundred and fifty feet at the 
base; that the angle of elevation is fifty-one degrees 
and that it contains three million cubic yards of ma- 
sonry. When you consider the height and angle, do 
you wonder at my increased respect for wife and 
daughter when I tell you they climbed to the top? I 
started after them and, notwithstanding the united 
efforts of three accredited Arab guides, two who pulled 
and one who pushed, after going about one-eighth of 
the way I found the fates were unpropitious and the 
angle that morning too steep, or else — and I may as 
well make a clean breast of it — I was dizzy and afraid. 
At any rate, I threw up the job, and compromised by 
having a picture taken safely seated on camel-back with 
the Sphinx and the Pyramids as mere background. 
When securely grounded and, of course, somewhat 



44 Around the World in a Year 

ashamed of myself, the guides comforted me by tell- 
ing of a big fellow who only shortly before had reached 
the top, but was seized with fright on the way down, 
completely collapsed, and had to be blindfolded and car- 
ried like a child. By way of that story and others like 
it which the guides gave me, and of a good tip which I 
gave them, spirits were revived and we managed to 
part on good terms — but I never can feel quite happy 
over that failure to follow the women of my party to 
the capstone of the Great Pyramid. If you cannot scale 
the summit and reach the reputation and grand view 
which there await you, the next best thing is to follow 
me and crawl into its interior — part of the way on all- 
fours — and there explore the narrow passages and in- 
clines; the Queen's Chamber, and the King's Chamber, 
one hundred and fifty feet above the base. In the 
King's Chamber is the empty granite sarcophagus of 
Cheops in which, as the story goes, his body lay for 
more than three thousand years, until the coming of the 
vandal Persians under Cambyses, when, to save it, the 
mummy was removed to some secret chamber, the sit- 
uation of which was so deftly concealed that it still 
baffles discovery. In the King's Chamber I saw those 
great polished granite blocks which form the walls, 
each seventeen feet in length and four feet wide and 
high, fashioned and laid so marvelously true that you 
have to look hard for the line of joint, and then, though 
no cement was used, find you are unable to insert your 
knife-blade in the seam as much as a quarter of an 
inch anywhere. Done six thousand years ago. 

Do not get the impression that the second pyramid, 
which looms so near, is negligible, for it isn't; being 
very nearly as high and large as the so-called first or 



Cairo 



47 



Great Pyramid. It looked to me quite as high, but that 
was because it stands on ground slightly more elevated. 
The third is over two hundred feet high, considerably 
less than half the height of the others, but in some 
respects it is the most interesting. It is practically 
unscalable to any but a certain few of the catlike Arab 
guides, born to the work. The apex and base are so 
smooth with the original casing that it looks impossible. 
A young woman, a member of the Alpine Club with a 
number of very difficult mountains to her credit, was 
picked up at the base of this pyramid dreadfully broken 
and carried to the Mena House, where she lay uncon- 
scious, between life and death, while we were in camp 
near there — which you shall hear about. She had ven- 
tured alone; and even her nerve and skill proved in- 
sufficient. When I learned of that accident I was glad 
I refused the offer of a guide to show me for three 
shillings that that third pyramid could be conquered. 
The responsibility was too great. I did not want the 
handling of blood-money. We afterwards saw the 
bones of the builder of that third great pyramid in the 
British Museum; they were discovered in its recesses 
and taken to London in recent times. He rested undis- 
turbed about six thousand years within his own mighty 
self-made sarcophagus. He is likely to rest quite a 
while longer in the British Museum — say, until Macau- 
lay's New Zealander does his turn on London Bridge, 
the date for which is still unannounced. 

We found the Sphinx much the worse for its four 
thousand long years of ceaseless vigil. It was buried 
to the shoulders in the sand until a few years ago, and 
excavations have proceeded far enough to show that 
it is the gigantic figure of a recumbent lion with a 



48 Around the World in a Year 

human head — more than likely the portrait of some 
Pharaoh. The books say it is sixty-six feet high, and 
it seems to be, with ears that are each four and a half 
feet long, a nose nearly six feet long, a mouth nearly 
eight feet wide and a face nearly fourteen feet in 
breadth. This colossus was cut from the surround- 
ing living rock, and was restored by the Romans, who 
built a supporting wall around it, which, from age and 
rough treatment during the Arab and Mameluke con- 
quests, is itself a ruin. It seems probable that the head 
was originally quite fine and the countenance good to 
look upon, but after being a target for rude invaders 
it has lost nearly all its nose, and eyes and mouth are 
much damaged, leaving it looking no better than you 
might expect. 




Bedouin Camel Boy, Egypt. 



UP THE NILE 

It was February 26th, just one mouth from our 
start, when we bade adieu for a while to Cairo. The 
little side-wheeler "Cleopatra "bound up the Nile to the 
First Cataract, which is at Assuan, became our home 
for most of the next three weeks. The channel was 
tortuous, for the Nile was low, and in a month it should 
be at its lowest. Would not a fall of twenty-five feet 
make the channel of any river tortuous? We worked 
our way over the many shallows with two Arabs, one on 
either bow, trying the depth with their poles and sing- 
songing in Arabic the results of their investigations 
back to the native pilot. I understand there is no chart 
of the Nile, for the reason that the bottom being light 
its bars and shoals change continually with the season 
and the volume of water. When a shallow became per- 
plexing a sailor was sent overboard, and by swimming 
and treading around he showed depths and the way out. 
The distance between Cairo and Assuan is six hun- 
dred miles, but, considering the many crooks and 
turns in the river itself and the amount of crossing, 
recrossing, looping and backing indulged in to keep 
afloat, the distance traveled must have been at least 
one thousand miles. 

Before taking you with us up the Nile suppose we 
briefly confer together as to the river itself. The Nile 
is over forty-one hundred miles in length — one of the 
longest rivers on the globe — and ranges from two hun- 
dred and fifty feet to five miles in width, depending on 

49 



5° 



Around the World in a Year 



locality and season. I don't think we saw it anywhere 
much over half a mile broad. Its main sources are the 
Nyanzas and the mountains of Abyssinia, lakes Vic- 
toria and Albert being responsible for the White Nile 
and the mountains for the Blue Nile. The White Nile 
and the Blue Nile come together at Khartum, the cap- 




Laden with Water Jars, on the Nile. 



ital of the Soudan, and the nineteen hundred miles 
from there to the Mediterranean is done by joint effort. 
For three-fourths of its long way the Nile divides the 
two great deserts, the Libyan and the Arabian, — two 
of the hottest, most parched and unquenchable tracts 
known. For over five hundred miles of its course it is 
practically rainless, and for about five hundred other 
miles it scarcely ever rains. No other river in the world 
is so robbed and side-tracked for irrigation; and for 
the last fourteen hundred miles — all the way from Ber- 



Up the Nile 51 

ber — it stalks on alone without the help of a single 
feeder. I don't speak by the card, but believe no four- 
teen hundred miles of river anywhere else is left so 
alone. I have wondered why it does not lose itself com- 
pletely in so long a journey between the deserts, and 
with this ceaseless drain. What saves it from, being 
swallowed up! How can it find so very much to green 
and make fertile the extensive delta district below 
Cairo, the last hundred and fifty miles of its course, 
and deliver such volume to the Mediterranean! I un- 
derstand that the answer is found in the torrential 
regions of Upper Egypt and the long rainy season 
about those great African lakes which are right under 
the equator. A river that rises twenty-five feet for 
four thousand miles and meets such tremendous losses 
from soakage, radiation and irrigation, certifies to the 
necessity for mackintosh and overshoes somewhere. 

All land in Egypt not reached by the annual inun- 
dation, or which is not flooded in some way by water 
hoisted from the Nile, is desert waste. This makes 
habitable Egypt a queer shoestring-shaped country un- 
like any other, its length being — say, three hundred 
times its breadth, which ranges between high-water 
mark on either side. All the rest is sand and Sahara, 
with only a theoretical sphere of influence, and no pres- 
ent possibility of occupancy, upon which to base rights 
of sovereignty. The Nile is Egypt's all in all, and the 
height to which it rises year by year is matter of the ut- 
most concern to all Egypt, which has little else but agri- 
culture upon which to depend. A rise of only twenty- 
four feet over average low water spells famine; if of 
twenty-five feet, it means a poor crop ; if of twenty-six 
feet, a good crop ; and if it be twenty-eight feet, a big 



52 Around the World in a Year 

crop — for the reason that a foot or two makes a differ- 
ence of many square miles in the amount of territory 
inundated. The Egyptians have suffered much from 
famine and have had many lean years in their long his- 
tory, but, by way of the great dam at Assuan, enough 
water is now stored and controlled to insure almost an 
average rise below that point, and a failure of crops is 
now scarcely a subject of any fear. The Nile begins to 
rise in April and continues to rise till the middle of 
September. All the land reached by a mean rise is so 
rich with the accumulated deposits of centuries — every 
recurring flood adding a new film — that its fertility is 
beyond any comparison. Three crops are sown and 
gathered annually on very much of it ; the number de- 
pending only upon the grade-level, which, of course, 
determines the length of time it is left uncovered by the 
waters and, therefore, the amount of farming possible. 
This annual enrichment is at the expense of that equa- 
torial jungle and those Abyssinian mountains. A level- 
ing process must be going on in those regions ; and the 
question arises, how long can they stand it? But if 
the answer involves those millions again let us give 
it up. The thirty feet of richest alluvium which has 
been left by Father Nile all along his course may yet 
be drawn upon to replenish the played-out farms of 
New England. 

Their system of irrigation seems to meet every re- 
quirement, and the whole crop looked equally well nour- 
ished. It consists of interlaced canals and ditches dug 
beyond the reach of the annual inundations, through 
what would otherwise be desert waste. The present sys- 
tem was established away back in the days of Moses; 
and many of the ditches now in use were dug in those 



Up the Nile 53 

old days. It is all under government control. Every 
acre has its due share of water and contributes its 
proportion to the maintenance fund. Before Lord 
Cromer's time the irrigation system was kept up by 
forced labor, but now by labor hired as for anything 
else. The ditches are flooded from the river or canal 
edge by way of shadufs worked by hand, or by the 
sakiyeh, which are rude water-wheels with endless 
thongs fitted with earthen buckets or jars and turned 
by mules, oxen, camel or buffalo. 

We saw thousands of the brawny blacks in gangs of 
three or six at work in the shadufs, all nearly naked 
and some quite so, raising the precious water of Old 
Nile to the top of the banks and the waiting crops. 
Every few hundred feet of the way — wherever the 
banks were steep — we could expect to see them, and 
never tired of watching them. Working the shadufs 
means lifting the water from a hole dug at the river 
edge, and from there again into successive short 
ditches, each higher than the last — the river edge and 
each ditch being manned by either one or two workers. 
It was the way of their fathers for thousands of years, 
as shown by hieroglyphics and recorded by the ancient 
historians. They use the same kind of skin dippers 
attached to levers which are weighted at the other end 
with dried mud, and supported between mud pillars re- 
inforced with sugar-cane. When the mud weights are 
released they fall, carrying the full dipper at the other 
end to the higher level. Because of the weighted end 
the work is changed from lifting into a downward pull, 
economizing effort greatly. As effective as it is simple. 
I never saw anything harder to describe, but the water 
gets there just the same, and the river traveler is fur- 



54 Around the World in a Year 

nished a minor spectacle peculiar to the Nile, and really 
fascinating. 

The narrow Nile valley is producing all that is now 
possible, but with increased irrigation the area of 
cultivation can be enlarged almost indefinitely. The 
whole Sahara is a possible granary, needing but mois- 
ture to produce bountifully. In fact, farming in Egypt 
consists for the most part in getting water. Methods 
are exceedingly primitive. The wooden plow, the mat- 
tock, and the sickle are still about all the tools of which 
they make use. So far as we saw, all the grass and grain 
grown there is cut and gathered by hand. If there is a 
reaper or harvester there we did not see it ; while, 
throughout the length of the land (there is but little 
width), we saw thousands in the fields, bent double 
or on all-fours, cutting with the sickle. One of the 
signs of Egypt's present prosperity is that land hold- 
ings average very small and peasant proprietorship 
is on the increase. I understand that a large part of 
the crop is wholly grown and cut and gathered by the 
individual proprietors, each doing all. It is very prim- 
itive, but then they are prospering. I may not be able 
to fathom so abstruse a proposition in economics, but 
it seems to me that this people get the most possible 
employment and profit from their, ancient methods ; and 
that to fill old Egypt with agricultural machinery would 
leave a lot of people there idle, and serve only the 
reaper and other trusts — already overrich. Cotton, 
sugar and grain are the principal products. The delta 
district is ninety miles wide and is a great cotton field. 
Egypt's cotton crop averages one million two hundred 
thousand bales — about one-tenth of the world's pro- 
duction. In a speculation in that commodity I learned 



Up the Nile 55 

this — before learning to leave it alone. The delta- 
grown cotton is a superior article; has long fibre, 
and brings about two cents a pound over Texas 
cotton. 

The river scenery is varied, but mostly soft, green to 
the edge of the deserts with the crops, and stretching 
away yellow and parched beyond. We got to know that 
any clump of palm trees indicated a village somewhere 
within its shade; but, unless it was on the bank or the 
horizon, we were obliged to look hard to make it out — 
especially in some lights. Their low-lying mud-houses, 
if such they can be called, blended into the surround- 
ings as if they grew there. The river banks averaged 
ten feet and seldom exceeded thirty feet in height. 
A range of hills, steep, bare and volcanic, follow the 
river for much of the way, first on one side and then 
the other, usually at some little distance. 

Those days and nights on the Nile were full of tran- 
quillity. It was delicious, sitting in the shade in the 
bow of the boat — mind and body at rest, the world a 
dream and nothing whatever the matter — lazily lis- 
tening to the singing of the natives on the deck below, 
or watching them at their labors or their prayers as 
we worked our way up-stream, making two or three 
landings daily. I will not trouble you with the names 
of those landing-places. Most of them I could neither 
spell nor pronounce. They were centres of great inter- 
est to us. The natives were always gathered there in 
force, and many phases of Egyptian life could be seen 
and studied. The differences of race and type, as of 
color and costume, were made clear. The further up 
we went the hotter it grew and the darker the skin, 
until, in Nubia and towards Assuan, the Egyptian stock 



56 



Around the World in a Year 




A handing on the Nile — Our Gangplank in Foreground. 

almost ran out and the blacks, a more rugged and war- 
like race, largely predominated. 

We frequently went aground, and the channel at 
times was so near the shore that we could have jumped 
there. In fact, several natives were landed in that 
way. We saw them towing their lark-winged Nile 
boats up-stream when the wind failed; and some of 
them swimming across with their only garment held 
dry, twisted about their heads. We saw them in early 
morning performing their ablutions at the edge; and 
about the commonest sight was the barefooted peasant 
women filling their water-jars or balancing them on 
their heads and wending their way between river and 
village, or village and river. They were usually in 
bands of two to twenty, looking just alike, all dressed in 
loose black — enveloped excepting the eyes — just as the 
carvings on the tombs show was the custom thousands 



Up the Nile $y 

of years ago. I cannot say it was a cheering sight. 
The low-caste women of Egypt evidently do nearly all 
the water carrying, and the men all the lifting of water 
for irrigation. 

By the time we reached as far south as Assiut, the 
flies began to bother and the fancy fly-flappers we 
bought in Cairo, as souvenirs, were put into commis- 
sion. We noticed that the flies seemed to select the 
native babies and very young children for their com- 
bined attacks. It was a common sight, and a dis- 
gusting one, to see their little brown faces, sticky with 
sugar-cane, each made the field of operation of dozens 
of them all sapping and mining at once — principally 
in the corners of their eyes— the little hand raised in 
protest the while, but the natives though close by — even 
the mother — paying no attention whatever. Upon 
inquiry I learned that these poor ignorant Fellah 
mothers purposely do nothing to relieve their offspring 
from this torture, under the belief that flies covering 
the face are a means of averting the evil eye, to which 
baleful influence they believe the young are peculiarly 
susceptible. They therefore seldom, if ever, wash 
their babies' faces, and the sugar-cane they live on 
and the dirt they live in do the rest. Egyptian dark- 
ness now took on a new meaning. We saw many little 
ones with their chubby faces almost covered with the 
pests, and very often with sores in the corners of their 
eyes, nose and mouth where the flies stuck and could 
not be dislodged by the little things. No wonder that 
there are so many wholly or partially blind, and so 
many sore eyes in Egypt. Egyptian ophthalmia is ac- 
counted for. The great work begun by Lord Cromer 
will not be finished until the emancipation of the poor 



58 Around the World in a Year 



Fellah mothers from this cruel superstition. "When I 
called his attention to it he told me of much that had 
been and was being done to improve conditions in this 
respect; and pointed to statistics showing a great re- 
duction in the number suffering from ophthalmia and 
blindness. Visions of the fly-blown babies of Upper 
Egypt will last long with me. Religion, what crimes 
are committed in thy name! Superstition! — Now 
hold on, gentle reader. Please do not remind us of the 
trouble and expense we ourselves went to to avert 
the evil eye at the outset of these journeyings by refus- 
ing to make the start on a Friday. Let us change the 
subject. 

Near to Beni-Chekeir, which is about two hundred and 
twenty miles up from Cairo, we passed the dahabiyeh 
"Thames" with his ecclesiastical highness the Right 
Reverend Bishop Potter and family aboard. They 
had been, as we have read, spending the winter in 
Upper Egypt. I cannot think of any one more likely 
to appreciate the poetry and teachings of this myste- 
rious land than the scholarly and progressive bishop of 
the diocese of New York. 

The third day happened to be the author's birthday, 
and passengers and officers were gracious enough to 
conspire together to celebrate. You of course know 
what a silly season a voyage is. I took my first alarm 
on finding the doors and walls of the dining-room fes- 
tooned with palm branches, with oranges hanging here 
and there and the boat's colors and signal-flags doing 
duty behind my chair. It was all very pretty; but 
when about an hour before dinner I was notified what 
it was all about and who was expected to respond, I 
realized the seriousness of the situation. It was so 



Up the Nile 59 

sudden — as it were. If there ever was a time and place 
when running away could not be thought of surely 
it was right then and there. After the birthday cake, 
which was specially prepared by the stewards, was cut, 
the fun began, and there was a lot of it. A distin- 
guished member of the Chicago bar acted as .toast- 
master. It was all so spontaneous and cheering. If 
a man lives long enough he must some time or other 
reach his — well, no matter, exactitude is sometimes 
quite out of place, even embarrassing. I am risin' 
thirty-four, and I can think of no better place or way 
to celebrate a birthday than with wife and daughter 
and a company of new friends — and good ones — jour- 
neying up Old Nile on the way round the world. Here's 
to you! 

I suppose the principal attraction for most travelers 
in Egypt is its ruins, but for me a study of the native 
races — the Fellahs, Nubians, Copts, Bedouins and 
Soudanese — was even of greater interest. Though ven- 
eration may not be our long suit, no student of his- 
tory, no one with any poetry at all in his soul, can be 
a month on the Nile and not be impressed in some de- 
gree by the stupendous relics of Egypt's past. We 
gazed with wonder upon the rock tombs of Beni-Has- 
san — beautiful columns and chambers carved out of the 
mountain-side — hewn from the living rock. Nothing 
put there, nothing joined; only excavation and carv- 
ing. It is a little strange that our multi-millionaires, 
instead of building their mausoleums in pieces, as it 
were, in the loose earth or above ground by piling 
block upon block, do not copy these rock tombs of the 
ancient Egyptians and arrange to leave their precious 
bodies in time-despising rock chambers embedded in 



60 Around the World in a Year 

earth's crust — floored, walled, ceiled and pillared in 
the unmoved living rock, where joint does not exist 
and cement finds no place. It might be costly, but that 
to them would be a recommendation. 

Assiut, which is about two hundred and fifty miles 
south of Cairo and the most populous town in Upper 
Egypt, is the starting-point of an important caravan 
route to the far interior. We jackassed it through the 
bazaar and market-place there to the ancient rock 
tombs away up on the bare mountain-side, from which 
is an extended view. It was a hot ride, and we began 
to realize that we had left the latitude of Cairo, but 
in the dry air of this rainless country we can stand 
a lot of heat and the nights are pleasantly cool. 

At the landing and in the bazaar the din of the fel- 
lows trying to sell us native-made tinsel lace shawls, 
rhinoceros whips, and other things was at times dis- 
tracting. We found that they never asked less than 
two or three times what they eventually were glad to 
receive. Their figure always being refused, the wrangle 
at once began with "How much you give!" — about 
the extent of their English — and it often put us pil- 
grims and entire strangers to a severe test. Bargain- 
ing with Orientals is both demeaning and demoraliz- 
ing, and — how this world is given to lying ; or is it only 
change of mind which makes it seem so — in these jar- 
ring efforts to sell high and buy low? 

In due course we reached Luxor, four hundred and 
fifty miles up from Cairo, the site of ancient Thebes, 
chief city of the Pharaohs, where are several of the 
most important ruins to be seen anywhere. We tarried 
there four days. By way of donkeys, urged on by 
donkey-boys, and a guide, we were enabled to scour 



Up the Nile 61 

around the ruins of the great Temple of Luxor which 
was the palace of great Rameses; to view the Rames- 
seum, another of his palaces, with the famous Colossi ; 
to enter the new-found Tombs of the Kings — from 
which the bodies of the Rameses and other Pharaohs 
now at Cairo were extracted ; and, last and greatest of 
all, to gaze upon and study the temples at Karnak. 
Here then at Luxor, a modern Egyptian town occupy- 
ing, as was said, the site of ancient Thebes, are ruins 
in galaxy — enough to satisfy any one. But where 
is Thebes of a million population, the most luxurious 
and important of the cities of early ancient times? 
It lies buried low in desert sand, with these grandest 
of ruins now dug away therefrom, marking the place. 
The ruins of the temple and palace of Luxor adjoined 
the gardens of our hotel, but neither contiguity nor such 
familiarity as we acquired bred any contempt for them 
or for those seventy-two stately portico columns, each 
fifty-one feet in height and eleven feet in diameter. 
And we secretly protested against the obliteration of 
many hieroglyphics by the Romans, and against their 
blocking up great doorways, and also against the 
smearing by the same Romans of walls and ceilings 
with soot from the oil-lamps of their soldiery, who used 
the place as a barracks. It has served as a centre for 
all sorts of worship. Sacrifices have been offered here 
to sacred bulls and hawks, to the sun and to Rameses 
II. Parts of it, for an extended period, served as a 
Coptic church, and during the last part of the long 
period of its burial and obliteration a mosque was built 
almost over it, which is still in use by the followers 
of the Prophet. That obelisk which rears its head in 
the centre of the Place de la Concorde, marking the 



62 Around the World in a Year 

place where the guillotine was set up during the Reign 
of Terror, came from this temple of Luxor — given to 
the city of Paris by Khedive Ismail when he was curry- 
ing the favor of France. 

The Temple of Luxor was only recently excavated. 
For centuries it lay deep as Herculaneum. An Arab 
village occupied the site and the exhumed temple is 
still surrounded by it, high up on two sides. How very 
strange it seems that only twenty years ago the then 
British consular building was, quite unawares, located 
right over the tallest and grandest of the pillars of this 
temple — all standing and only since then found. The 
world owes the discovery of this magnificent ruin, as 
well as of most of the others in Egypt, to the British 
occupation and the enterprise of antiquarian societies. 

Two miles to the north of Luxor are the ruins of the 
temples of Karnak, said to be the very greatest of all 
ancient monuments, not excepting any — no, not one. 
We went out twice to see them. They are the ruins of 
a series of connected temples, erected, enlarged or 
adorned by a succession of kings — despots who had 
but to will, who considered naught of blood and treas- 
ure; but even they took full two thousand years — so 
history tells us — to bring the wonders of Karnak to 
such a state of completion as was reached. To me it 
is as fifty-six acres of darkness and desolation; and, 
looked upon simply as ruins, less picturesque and sat- 
isfying than the smaller temples at Denderah, Edfu 
or Luxor. I don't know why, unless it be that, as a 
whole, they are not so well preserved. Or, is it that 
their vastness palls! At Karnak much is still buried 
in rubbish. From the time of the Roman occupation 
down to the last few years it was allowed to fall into 




A Gateway at Karnak. 



Up the Nile 65 

ruins, which accounts for its present dilapidation. But 
what is left standing or in sight proves its right to be 
also figured among the wonders of the world. The 
famous Hypostyle Hall is truly magnificent; with its 
one hundred and twenty-two giant columns, each nearly 
seven feet in diameter, and the twelve others — those of 
the centre aisle — nearly twelve feet in diameter and 
sixty-nine feet in height — all standing. Could anything 
in the temple column line be more huge? If any single 
one of the biggest of them could be placed in the centre 
of the greatest square of some great city, it would only 
be fair setting — and there are here on the edge of the 
desert a dozen of them, with one hundred and twenty- 
two others approximately like unto them. These col- 
umns supported a roof at least five feet in thickness 
made of double layers of great blocks, fitting perfectly, 
some of which are still in place. Everything about 
Karnak— its pylons, courts, sanctuaries, treasure- 
houses, birth-houses, colonnades, monoliths and avenue 
of sphinxes — is on a gigantic scale. What a waste of 
material it does seem ! With all the machinery and re- 
sources of modern times it would be lunacy to imagine 
any nation, no matter how rich, attempting to erect 
public buildings like these — if it be now at all possible 
to quarry, carry and set up such huge blocks and 
monoliths. The columns seem much too heavy and nu- 
merous for even the work they do or did, notwith- 
standing that spread of rock roof five feet thick. 
Beauty was sacrificed, I thought, by the over-massing 
of material which monopolizes space. A very learned 
doctor well expressed my opinion when he told me 
that Karnak reminded him of Mother Goose and the 
boy who "pulled out a plum and said what a big boy 



66 Around the World in a Year 

am I." Each king tried to outdo his predecessor in 
the costliness and size of his contribution to the great 
temple. Barneses II, won. It is a monument to reck- 
less egotism. The tallest obelisk left in Egypt still 
stands guard at one of the entrances of the Temple 
of Amnion — the principal temple in that aggregation 
of temples at Karnak. It is ninety-seven feet in height. 
Its mate has bitten the sand long centuries since. 

It was another long hot ride — donkey ride of course 
— from Luxor to the Tombs of the Kings, which were 
discovered only about nine years ago, and from which 
the bodies of about a dozen of the Pharaohs have since 
been taken from as many magnificent rock tombs scat- 
tered over the district — most of them with long corri- 
dors and centre and side chambers, all cut into the bed 
rock. They represent what must have been an immense 
expenditure of labor. But those Pharaohs, when it 
came to building temples to appease their gods or as 
tombs for themselves, seem to have been utterly regard- 
less of the cost — to others. The pyramids at Gizeh 
and Sakkara are known to be simply individual tombs 
of the earliest kings. But the pyramid kings and those 
others whose bodies were found here in these Tombs 
of the Kings account for only a few of them. Where 
are the others, and what character of tombs built they? 
This is a question future explorers may yet definitely 
answer. The royal tombs were discovered through 
the bungling efforts of an Arab, who got to know of 
and rifled some of them, and then offered his loot for 
sale in Cairo, with the result that suspicion was 
aroused and searching investigation followed. I should 
say they constitute the most important addition to 
Egypt's antiquities since the finding of the Bosetta 



Up the Nile 67 

stone. They bring to light not only more of the great 
works of the long past, but give actual possession of 
the bodies of the chieftains of the ancient world, as 
well. These now lie in the Cairo Museum, bones, skin, 
hair and, as I imagined, the living expression also — 
so wonderfully preserved are they, considering the 
lapse of the sixty centuries. 

Those Tombs of the Kings are a long way from habi- 
tation and in the most God-forsaken district I ever vis- 
ited — inaccessible except for a winding donkey road be- 
tween the bare volcanic steeps. There, in a natural 
amphitheatre, no moisture or green thing anywhere, 
with the sun beating down upon us most unmercifully, 
we came upon them. Everything thereabouts looks as 
if it had passed through the fiery furnace — dead and 
done to a cinder. It is death's valley, indeed, where 
those old despots so luxuriously prepared to lay them- 
selves down. 

After four days spent thus interestingly, we whistled 
off at Luxor on the way further south. 

During the three hours ' stop at Edf u we viewed with 
much interest the ancient temple there, which is, in- 
cluding the massive roof, in wonderful preservation 
— probably owing to the fact that it was completely 
buried for centuries, and until only thirty-five years 
ago, when it was unearthed by the discoverer, Ma- 
riette. The temple is about a mile from the landing 
and we decided to try walking there. It was not an 
unqualified success; for as soon as we put foot ashore 
we were surrounded by a crowd of guides, donkey- 
boys and nondescripts, all pressing their attentions 
and impeding our way. We managed at last to extri- 
cate ourselves and to shoo all of them to a respectful 



68 Around the World in a Year 

distance at least; except one barefooted little fellow, 
about thirteen, who persisted in the most crafty and 
masterful, but polite way, to keep in our company. 
Nothing fazed him, and we tried everything on him 
but a club — which I am sure would not have been a 
safe proceeding in that neighborhood. He was a hand- 
some little fellow, spoke English, and when, in mock 
earnestness, I asked if he was a dragoman he calmly 
said "Yes." That boy was an artist. He could open 
a jackpot with a pair of sixes and get away with 
it, somehow. We could not shake him. He marched 
at our side, drove off everybody of his size and weight 
or near to it — had a regular set-to with several — and 
in every way played the dragoman, though, of course, 
we knew he could only be a donkey-boy. We paid no 
attention to him except to discourage him; our efforts 
being to see if it were possible to visit a place in Upper 
Egypt without taking either donkey, camel or guide. 
Nothing daunted, he pointed out everything, including 
the shortest way, just as if he was under pay. When 
we passed into the temple gate, without doing a thing 
but make a final effort to drive him off, we thought we 
had him lost or at least discouraged, but no, for when 
we emerged an hour after there he was lying in wait. 
Just here, though, the Egyptian soldiery got in its 
fine work. The natives are very mindful of them, for 
they use their sticks with their authority. We rarely 
came across them, but here was one. He made a pass 
for two fellows, our little dragoman included, and 
they scampered off out of sight. The soldier convoyed 
us back to the boat-landing, and we were glad of his 
assistance. A moment later, when viewing the country 
from the deck, there at the landing we saw our brave 



Up the Nile 69 

little dragoman, his feathers now all down and much 
crestfallen, but his eye still on us and, in the crowd, 
looking just like the other natives — like the lot he had 
beaten off. We had succeeded in a way, but with no 
wish to try it again. Whether he got the coppers we 
threw at him as our boat sheered off, is hard to say. 
He was in the scuffle for them. If it is possible for a 
donkey-boy to become a dragoman, that boy will be 
one yet; but I recall that Abbas told me none of them 
could ever become a real dragoman — giving me clearly 
to understand that running on behind and licking don- 
keys for white riders is no school for such masters of 
detail. 

Of all minor sights given us to see on our voyage up 
the Nile, perhaps that which will linger longest in 
memory and pleased most, was of some camel and his 
tall, muffled Arab rider striding alone along the crest 
of the western bank at the close of day. A few stately 
palms properly distributed — and they always seemed 
to be properly distributed, — camel, rider and palms 
sharply pictured against the sky-line, an African sun- 
set for the burnished background and fast-approach- 
ing Egyptian night for the frame. It was a picture I 
always looked for after once seeing it, and was fre- 
quently rewarded. It filled not only the eye but the 
imagination as well. It was such a beautiful admix- 
ture of the dignified, the mysterious and the ferocious 
— such a vivid reminder of both the Old and New 
Testaments. 

Assuan, six hundred miles up from Cairo, is as far 
south as we went. At the Cataract House on the 
heights there, opposite to Elephantine Island, where is 
the famous nileometre, we stayed through several very 



jo Around the World in a Year 

interesting days. The grand berage or great dam at 
Assuan, built across the river just above the First 
Cataract, makes a magnificent reservoir, one hundred 
and thirty square miles in area. It is said to be one of 
the greatest triumphs of modern engineering, and marks 
one of the principal benefits conferred upon Egypt by 
British occupation. By it the water not required at 
the annual inundation is stored and released as needed. 
It is considerably over a mile in length and is one 
hundred feet high, with one hundred and eighty 
sluices and one lock. There is talk of raising it still 
higher. But we did not go to Egypt to study modern 
masonry, no matter how long or high, and I do not sup- 
pose that the reader will ask me to dwell at length on 
this dam. It is too utilitarian and incongruous to suit 
the temper of a sojourner in Egypt, and comes as a sur- 
prise in a region where the natives are semi-savages, 
so black that soot would not make a mark upon them, 
and where the women wear rings in their noses as well 
as on their ankles. Those rings in the noses of the 
Nubian women are worn as ornaments and may tickle 
their vanity, but it is another custom which, like their 
hoods and harems, proclaims the servitude of their 
sex. One bad result of the dam is the submerging of 
the island of Phila3 and the flooding of the very im- 
portant ruins of the Temple of Philre, completed by 
Hadrian about 100 b.c, which are probably doomed 
unless the plan to take them down and re-erect them 
on a higher and drier level succeeds. 

On our way back from the dam our natives steered 
us through the rapids — excepting the worst of them, 
where we made a carry. And there, where it was too 
much for us, a venturesome black plunged in and swam 



Up the Nile 73 

through; but, poor fellow, he came out running with 
blood from a deep gash cut in his thigh by the cruel 
rock. It is astounding what chances these poor men 
will take in the expectation that white men will re- 
spond with a few coppers. We could not prevent one 
of our black boys from jumping the seventy-five feet 
into the lock there. When our disregarded mandate 
was, after the act, tempered with a half-piaster — two 
and a half cents — he was well pleased and ready to do 
it again. 

It was at an Assuan hotel where I saw the tip busi- 
ness played by both sides for all it was worth. A guest, 
carrying a small handbag, was leaving — his trunks were 
probably at the station. Six heads of departments were 
lined up as usual right at the entrance, hands in readi- 
ness and countenances fixed at "most beseeching." It 
looked as if fleecing was on and escape impossible — 
but it wasn't. The guest sized up the surroundings 
and showed himself a man of daring, equal to the 
emergency; for with one of those rushes which are 
over about as soon as begun, he had — without even 
losing step — shaken the eager hands of all of them, 
seriatim, in the most friendly way, and, before they 
realized it, had broken through and was off with a 
smile which said: "I have paid my bill, let your em- 
ployer do the rest." A more surprised lot you never 
saw. When they came to, the whole array broke into 
laughing and the incident was closed. It was so well 
done it seemed to leave no sting. If, though, he ever 
has occasion to return to that hotel, methinks he will 
find a distinction and a difference between the treat- 
ment accorded a guest who tips every servant who 
officiously, and often unnecessarily, opens a door for 



74 Around the World in a Year 

him or hands him his hat, and one who does not — and 
this, though he be assured at the outset that the very 
stiff tariff is "inclusive and without extras." Al- 
though as guilty of practicing it as most travelers, I 
think the tipping system is wrong and that it defeats 
itself. Landlords know the chances for backsheesh 
which go with each place, and take it out of the 
servant who fills it — paying him just so much less, and 
often nothing at all beyond his keep. I have been re- 
peatedly and reliably informed that in many popular 
first-class hotels in Europe the waiters and porters de- 
pend wholly on tips, and pay the landlord for their 
places. What a farce is thus made of generosity ! On 
the whole, I think that Assuan party was a born re- 
former. 

There is more of that which makes for scenery at 
Assuan than elsewhere to the north; the river there 
makes sharp bends and is divided by rocky islands. 
Under the moonlight the scene, from our windows, of 
the river, the islands and the bare rock cliffs that line 
the opposite bank, was dazzling and of strange beauty. 
In the strong light everything was either in deep 
shadow or glistening yellow. Yellow is the prevailing 
color in Africa. The sky, sand and mountains all 
partake of the singed and scorched and look as if from 
the same fiery furnace — which, indeed, a midsummer in 
Upper Egypt must resemble. We went out to the camp 
of the Bisharin, a wild tribe of Bedouins who come 
from the desert near the confines of Abyssinia, and 
who wear their hair in long thin twists, greased and 
matted, reminding us of the head of Medusa. We also 
went to the famous ancient granite quarry whence the 
casings of the pyramids and the material for all the 



__^____ U P tJl e Nile 75 

obelisks and colossi in the temples came— the only 
granite quarry in Egypt. We saw there the giant 

! obelisk, three-fourths finished, though not yet detached 
from the living rock— left, just as we saw it, since the 
dead past. But how was it to have been raised and 
transported to the river, there to be rafted to and raised 
in Thebes or Memphis ? That is a question the records 
do not answer; and, as those ancient engineers were 
without the aid of steam and electricity, we cannot ac- 
count for, but only marvel at their patience and de- 
pendence upon brute strength. It was very hot at 
Assuan when we turned our faces to the north. We 
had trodden upon the fringe of Central Africa, but 
circumstances prevented our pressing on in that di- 

; rection. We had the Olympic Games at Athens in 
view, so " stuck to the ship," and— the current being 
now with us— we steamed and drifted back to Cairo in 
four days, stopping at several places, duplicating and 
prolonging the pleasures of the journey south. The 
voyage on the Nile was most interesting— it was de- 
lightful. 



TENTING ON THE DESERT 

After our return to Cairo we were induced by 
Abbas to try living out on the desert. Being a true 
Bedouin and thorough dragoman, he had his own camp- 
ing outfit and soon mustered the necessary staff. He 
only wanted to know where we wished to locate; and 
I have no doubt he would have taken us into the lion 
country to hunt, as he had others, if we had said the 
word and syndicated the job. We chose to be as near 
as practicable to the Pyramids of Grizeh so that we 
might revisit and enjoy that very interesting district, 
and, at the same time, be close enough to the Mena 
House, where, in an emergency, first-class accommoda- 
tions could be drawn upon at reasonably short notice. It 
should be known that the Mena House, which was thus 
to constitute our second line of defence, as it were, or 
retreat perhaps, is a luxurious hotel on the very edge 
of the desert about half a mile from the Great Pyra- 
mid, and, excepting for the huts of a few excavators, 
the only white man's habitation there short of Cairo, 
eight miles away. Egypt, though rifled for centuries, 
is still the richest storehouse of antiquities in the 
world. They are now jealously guarded. Every monu- 
ment has its Arab keepers, and no traveler is admitted 
to any ancient enclosure or interior without showing 
a card issued to him personally by the Museum au- 
thorities, which costs something and is good for a 
year all over the country. The point of this is that 
no one is allowed to settle within lines drawn about 

76 



Tenting on the Desert yy 

the Pyramids— averaging a mile — except the repre- 
sentatives of those few universities and societies which 
hold concessions to excavate, granted them by the gov- 
ernment under many limitations relating to locality 
and discoveries. As we wanted to pitch our tents 
within that precious domain, a special dispensation 
was necessary ; and only after a marshaling of influence 
and interviews with the Chief of Police, Director of 
the Museum and Minister of the Interior, was permis- 
sion issued, allowing us to settle just within the lines 
at a place well beyond the Sphinx, nearly a mile from 
the Great Pyramid and about two miles from the Mena 
House. There, right out on the yellow Libyan Desert, 
we abode five days. It was a new and interesting ex- 
perience. We had three big tents and five servants; 
including cook, waiter, water-carrier, and a night 
watchman. The watchman was imposed upon us by 
the Sheik of the nearest village. We felt safe enough 
with our own men, but Abbas said that there were 
many bad fellows about and that it would be insisted 
upon as a right by the Sheik, who visited us, because 
he felt responsible for our safety; and, further, that 
to refuse might mean mischief anyway. Of course we 
fell into line without a whimper, but I believe it was 
graft, pure and simple. We used to see our swarthy 
watchman with his old gun at sunset and during the 
early evening, but in the dead of the night, when I 
sometimes looked out and listened for him, he was 
nowhere either seen or heard. Only the whirring of 
the heavy desert beetle, or the distant barking of na- 
tive dogs in the little mud village a mile off, broke 
the stillness. 

Our helpers were all Egyptians — faithful and efficient 



yS Around the World in a Year 

fellows, — who in their rude way did all they could for 
our enjoyment, but were unable to speak a word of Eng- 
lish. Everything moved comfortably under the watch- 
ful eye of our dragoman, except that on the very first 
night sand-fleas — or was it only a sand-flea? — so an- 
noyed my highly civilized daughter that she up and 
mutinied, did her sleeping at the Mena House the 
rest of the time and had to be convoyed there in force 
every evening. I shall not soon forget those night 
tramps in the desert to the hotel. Everything was 
sunk in darkness. Never were nights darker than 
those — it so happened. The lantern swung by our 
Arab guide was the only light, and it was absolutely 
necessary. Passing first the peering and apparently 
moving Sphinx and the excavations in that vicinity; 
and then the silent Pyramids; meeting no one in all 
the two miles, except somewhere the native watchman, 
whom we never saw, but who in a whispered voice, as 
from the ground, always confronted us with the de- 
mand to know who we were, as we passed — challenge 
and answer both in language we did not understand — 
all was indeed very weird. But the voices of the soli- 
tary watchman and of our dragoman were not all the 
voices of those nights, for the ear became attuned to 
the murmur of something deeper and more profound; 
to a ghostly hum as from the myriad workers — an in- 
visible host — who in the hoary past were there and 
did those mighty things. A sort of desert diapason 
whirring with life amidst the hush. Those black nights 
under the Pyramids waked all the poetry in our na- 
tures. Many have seen the Pyramids in broad day- 
light, but to observe them as we did for five evenings 
as their lengthening shadows blended into the darkness, 



Tenting on the Desert 79 

and then to wander among them in blackest night when 
yon feel their lmge presence much better than yon can 
see them — that is a sensation given to those only who 
have camped there. 

Our days on the desert were full of nothing. Noth- 
ing but reading, eating and sleeping; with just "enough 
donkey-riding and strolling to keep the blood in cir- 
culation. It was solid comfort to stretch out in a 
steamer-chair in the shade of the tent, blue sky over- 
head and the wide, wide world all around, but at just 
the distance which lends most enchantment. What a 
delightful change from the drive and struggle of Wall 
Street so completely left behind — so far away. 

I enjoyed several earnest chats with Abbas as we sat 
in the open after dinner in the quiet of our camp, and 
recall how I once drew him out as to sun, moon, earth 
and stars. Such ideas as he had on the subject were 
most interesting. Like many millions of Musselmans 
his book-learning consisted simply of ability to repeat 
passages from the Koran, learned by rote, and, of 
course, he knew as much about the solar system as a 
camel. Poor fellow, it was cruel, but he will never 
know how sensational were some of his ideas. In 
those post-prandial soirees I did not always lead him 
so far afield. Being curious to learn the extent of 
polygamy in Egypt, I asked Abbas how many men in 
his village — Gizeh, a mud-house settlement of, say, 
three hundred people, a mile from us — were living 
with more than one wife ; and he said he thought there 
were forty. He said the Koran permitted a man to 
have four wives, depending only upon his ability to 
keep them, or — as he explained it — give them necessary 
food, clothing and shelter; and he said, further, that 



80 Around the World in a Year 

a man could divorce any of them in a word, but if she 
be without fault he must continue to supply her some- 
where with those bare necessaries. If you knew in how 
few days one of these people can pile sun-dried Nile 
mud into the semblance of a house; and how little it 
takes to maintain existence in this climate — three cents ' 
worth of sugar-cane and an onion being food for a 
strong man for a whole day, — and if you could judge 
how scant are their women's clothes, with never a 
hat or, in the country districts, sandals either, you 
would understand the risk every wife of an Egyptian 
with any property at all runs of being supplanted or 
divorced, and be ready to credit the men of Gizeh with 
moderation. When I questioned him closer he said he 
was himself recently married, loved his wife very 
much, but she often expressed fear that he would bring- 
home a second, which he sometimes chaffingly told her 
he might. I hope I have not betrayed Abbas' confi- 
dence. If I understand him and his people, I have di- 
vulged nothing he would mind. Inquiry and observa- 
tion made it clear to us that the women of Egypt are 
practically slaves; set apart, hooded and guarded by 
their owners, who consider them unfit for education, 
even of the Egyptian kind ; as quite outside the pale of 
religion and as having no hereafter — soulless chattels. 
Poor creatures, no wonder your big liquid eyes, though 
haunting, are so vacuous ! 

Extensive excavations were being carried on within 
a radius of a mile of the Pyramids. Many temples and 
innumerable tombs — it is a veritable Golgotha — have 
been found, and more or less unearthed. It is a centre 
of activity for the antiquarian societies. Many im- 
portant discoveries have recently been made and many 



Tenting on the Desert 8 1 

more may be expected. I should say that the Roman 
Forum does not contain as many temples, and that for 
their size, and perhaps interest as well, its ruins do 
not compare with the Pyramids of Gizeh and their im- 
mediate surroundings. We were fortunate in making 
the acquaintance of Mr. Covington, of Kentucky, who 
has devoted all his means and most of the last five 
years to exploring and excavating in the district, and 
has been quite successful. Among other finds to his 
credit is an extensive temple, dating from earliest 
time. He had pitched his tent near to the Great Pyra- 
mid, and was spending his American energy in an 
effort to locate certain little air-shafts to the centre 
of it, the existence of which has been suspected for cen- 
turies. Those air-shafts, when found and understood, 
are expected to tell very much of the builders' plan; 
and, when opened, to reduce the temperature within, 
which stands at seventy-nine degrees the year round. 
It was a privilege to sit with him in his tent, where 
he lives alone, and be allowed to ply him with ques- 
tions. He was at work most of the time -in the very 
bowels of the wonder- — all alone — and often till after 
midnight. A lonelier or more ghostly situation cannot 
be imagined. 

My daughter wished to see some excavating, and we 
wandered off one morning looking for it. We managed 
to see a band of natives, mostly boys, filling and carry- 
ing shallow baskets of the sand from about half -buried 
masonry, repeating something in unison in a loud sing- 
ing voice the while. We tried to get near, but were 
confronted by a black, who handed out a writing with a 
notice, repeated in several languages, that we were not 
welcome. After parleying for the imrpose of prolong- 



82 Around the World in a Year 

ing the watching as long as it seemed safe, we left 
with the sound of the Arab chaunt in our ears — the 
cheer in which seemed to keep them filling and carry- 
ing as for dear life. They appeared to be as happy 
as larks and were, for they were not carrying the 
white man's burden of civilization and its cares. In- 
stead they were making two and one-half to three and' 
one-third piasters a day of full ten hours — that is to say, 




Dunes on the Desert, Egypt. 

twelve to seventeen cents, — and, being a simple sober 
people, they live happily in that climate and save 
money. The diggings from which we were driven 
were, as we afterwards learned, being worked under a 
concession to the University of California. It looked 
as though they were uncovering a temple with tombs. 
Such desolation! But then the rude singing of those 
chubby white-teethed native boys left pleasant im- 
press on our efforts to see some Egyptian excavation — 
though driven off. 

After five days of this idyllic and al fresco existence, 
it came to pass that we went back to civilization ; which, 
being interpreted, means we broke camp and rallied 



Tenting on the Desert 83 

upon the preserves at the Mena House, stopping there 
several days until — having got the sand out of our 
shoes — we made our final salaam to the Pyramids and 
returned once more to Cairo. There we stayed a week , 
this time at the Ghezireh Palace Hotel, until our de- 
parture for Alexandria and the refreshing north. This 
hotel is worthy of a line. It and the inevitable harem, 
a big building near by, were built by Khedive Ismail, 
and occupied by him as one of his summer palaces. 
That exceedingly luxurious monarch took the precau- 
tion to coop up in this harem several hundred good- 
looking young women simultaneously and, more or less, 
permanently attached to his interests. This palace- 
hotel, patronized almost entirely by English, is right 
on the Nile opposite to other princely residences and 
Lord Cromer's great house; is quite extensive, and is 
situated in an exquisitely lovely park and flower gar- 
den. Taken altogether, it is one of the principal show- 
places in Cairo, and, considered as a hotel, the most 
magnificent we have seen anywhere — Ponce de Leon, 
Algeciras, and Mustapha Palace hotels to the contrary 
notwithstanding. The palace was confiscated by the 
Anglo-Egyptian government to help pay the enormous 
debt this same luxurious Ismail had incurred. 



CAIRO REVISITED 

We looked again through the Cairo Museum, a mag- 
nificent new building which cost a million. The royal 
mummies taken from the Tombs of the Kings at Thebes, 
which we had visited, were to us the chief attrac- 
tion. What is left of a number of the Pharaohs is 
there. Whether he who so harried the Israelites, and 
whose army was doused in the Red Sea for it, is 
among the number, I do not know and no one seems 
certain. But Barneses II., the greatest of them all, 
is there, and I believe he is under suspicion. Eight 
here it may be of interest to relate that in conversa- 
tion with an eminent Egyptologist (his name shall not 
be given, as permission was not asked) I was informed 
that there is some ground for believing that Rameses 
II. started the building of a military wall from a point 
near Port Said to Memphis, where Cairo now is, so 
as to fence off the fierce Arabians, — that remains of 
such a wall have been discovered. He continued by 
asserting his belief that the Israelites were told off — 
probably with many thousands of others — to do the 
work; that they rebelled — were found unwilling or in- 
competent — and were persecuted in consequence. I 
was asked to notice the innate probability of the hy- 
pothesis; that history and their present status show 
how hard and unlikely it would be for Jews to 
submit for years to be workers in bricks and mortar. 
The story, apart from biblical narrative, does seem 
plausible, to say the least. Let us return to the body 



Cairo Revisited 85 



of Rameses at the Museum. Of course lie is consider- 
ably shriveled from his entombment of over three thou- 
sand years, but the skin and bones are there. To gaze 
upon the form and into the face of the man who in his 
lifetime was worshipped as a god, and whose mighty 
works we had so recently seen, was intensely inter- 
esting. There he lay looking dreadfully tired, with his 
hands crossed not upon but above his breast — for his 
breastworks have shrunken away from the hands, 
which now appear raised above the body. What 
changes have come to the world since the great days 
of his rule, the golden era of the nineteenth dynasty; 
or even since the great epoch of the Roman sway in 
Egypt, which was many centuries thereafter — an era 
and an epoch followed by dark centuries of succeeding 
time when Egypt seems to have slept. And now, at this 
age of the world, that this same Rameses should be 
dragged from his mummy-cloth and exposed to the 
view of the profane and furnish the star exhibit in a 
museum controlled by the English, whose race and 
country — old though they now are — were unknown for 
a thousand years after his work was completed, is a 
sight almost appalling to the thoughtful mind. Most 
people are types, but there is no duplicating a Rameses 
II. or a Nero. 

All intending to pass a week or more in any foreign 
city should, if possible, carry letters. That the mutual 
friend is indeed a great institution can in no other way 
be better proved. We were fortunate in this regard in 
Cairo, and by way of introductions were enabled, in 
some measure, to get into the life of the place. When 
so far from home, loneliness is always in hailing dis- 
tance and a little social attention is most grateful. 



86 Around the World in a Year 

After being invited out and put up at the Turf Club, 
our Cairo took on a new and even more interesting 
tinge. Society in the season there is not only gay, 
but it is exceptionally polyglot and distinguished. 

From the terrace at Shepheard's we witnessed the 
state entry of the Prince and Princess of Wales into 
Cairo, on their way to England from India. Much po- 
litical significance and elaborate ceremony attached to 
this royal visit. France, for some valuable considera- 
tion, had recently relinquished all claims upon the coun- 
try, claims that had become technical only and highly 
attenuated by her refusals to join in putting down the 
Arabi rebellion; or, later, in "smashing the Mahdi," 
when he was prancing about the Soudan — each of which 
enterprises cost England much. Now, with France 
clean out, English soldiers in all the citadels, Turkish 
suzerainty a negligible quantity and the Khedive be- 
come a British Viceroy, this visit of England's future 
King and Queen was, in a sense, a taking of undisputed 
possession. As the Oriental mind always associates 
personality with government, and as their rulers have 
always been masters of force and show, this visit, with 
its accompanying ceremonial and luxurious entertain- 
ments, was well timed and planned. 

The freshly sanded roadway from the station to the 
Abdin Palace was lined the whole way with soldiers, 
principally red-coats well spread out — that "thin red 
line ' ' again, — and must have engaged nearly the whole 
of the little army of occupation, so called, which was 
less than four thousand. We saw the Khedive, with his ' 
ministers, body-guard, four out-runners and his postil- 
lions, as he drove to the station to greet the Prince; 
and again on his return with the Prince at his right 




Barneses II. — Thirty-three Hundred Years After. 



Cairo Revisited 89 



hand. He looked worried, ill at ease ; and no wonder, 
for was lie not eating crow? Going through lines of 
infidel soldiers not subject to his command to greet 
an infidel Prince of the house of his new-fledged master, 
while thousands of the faithful looked sullenly on. 
Shades of those great Khedives who successfully defied 
even the Sultan! It was formal abdication. The 
Prince looked calm, apparently paid no attention to 
the Khedive or the crowd, and stiffly returned the salute 
of the British officers and bands as he passed along. 
The Princess of Wales, with Lady Cromer, was in 
another carriage, and Lord Cromer — most important 
of all — the master mind in present-day Egypt, rode 
alone next behind the royal carriages. There was little 
or no cheering. It was business — world's politics — 
only that and nothing more. 

These heroics were well sustained 'in the entertain- 
ment Cairo devised for the royal visitors. The "Be- 
douin Fantasia and Burgass" at the race-course was 
the crowning event. It was a memorable spectacle, and 
a crush. Cairo's only bridge — the Kasr-el-Nil — was 
overwhelmed, and ten thousand were entitled to seats 
on the grand-stand which could only accommodate the 
half of them. It was like a great garden-party. The 
toilettes were those of an Oxford-Cambridge cricket 
match, or as seen at Longchamps — a field-day for the 
milliners and court dressmakers, as well as for the 
Bedouins. There was a somewhat tragic prelude. It 
was during the first race when a carriage, which was 
allowed to enter through a private gate, crossed the 
track directly in front of the racers and broadsided 
one unfortunate horse and his rider who were going 
full tilt. Death for both seemed certain. The horse 



90 Around the World in a Year 

plunged into the heavy carriage and fell in a heap, 
while the rider was shot clean over it and far beyond. 
But let the Fantasia proceed. Do you know the 
Bedouins! They are the kingliest of men. The type 
is tall and straight, with brow of steel, a profile per- 
fect, features any gentleman might envy — though he 
would probably draw the line at the complexion — coun- 
tenance ferocious and saturnine and eye keen but quiet 
— a party no one would dare to treat lightly. And here 
were hundreds of them and their chiefs and headmen, 
in the gala dress of their respective tribes; gathered 
from all over Egypt and beyond the deserts to make a 
holiday for British royalty. They set up their tents 
in the middle of the course, around a sumptuous mar- 
quee provided for the chiefs, which was all aflutter 
with the tribal flags and resounding with the music, 
if such it can be called, from native fifes, arghools and 
tom-toms. They were beautifully resplendent in color, 
and with their finest racing horses and racing camels 
in gaudy trappings. The march past of this host was 
a fine sight, and, when they were, cut loose and their 
fierce racing and charging was on, it was the most 
spirited scene I ever beheld. Schreyer 's pictures were 
confirmed. The bareback races; the four-mile camel 
race and the furious war charge with swinging naked 
cimeters; their magnificent horsemanship and rough 
riding — it was blood-stirring. Rich and running over 
with material for a Fred Remington masterpiece. The 
show wound up with the "Burgass," trick-riding, done 
before the royal enclosure. Camels were put to top 
gait, their swarthy riders standing erect on their backs 
holding and guiding with a single rein; and some of 
those Arabian horses did about everything but talk. 



Cairo Revisited 



9* 



Over all this glitter and glory there came to me the 
thought — and it was rather a sad one — that here were 
the proudest of the desert tribes of story, playing per- 
haps all unwittingly into England's hands — making a 
show for their new masters who hold the citadel, built 
by their great Sultan Hassan, and all the hill-tops; 
that this was the dying of a glorious race — the passing 
of the most warlike and picturesque of uncivilized 
peoples. Think of it, emerging from Arabia thirteen 
hundred years ago, overrunning the Balkans and Hun- 
gary, all northern Africa and Spain; and, if they had 
not been hurled back on that decisive day at Tours, 
probable conquerors of the whole western world. 
How well the English know how to manage their dusky 
subjects. If this was to be truly a Bedouin Fantasia, 
why not let them run it themselves! No, England is 
playing those world politics every day in the year, and, 
while her Prince of Wales watched those fierce Arab 
chiefs and warriors, they were never once allowed to 
get away from English control. The procession was 
headed by an Englishman, and all the racers were led to 
the starting-post by him, quite unnecessarily; and were 
followed up or, as it seemed, driven there by another — 
both making obeisance to their Prince and looking 
fresh from Pall Mall. Not even in their games were 
the natives allowed to even appear to get out of hand. 
It was indeed a great spectacle, that Bedouin Fantasia. 
The Moslem is a religious fanatic, and, because of the 
fatalism in his religious outfit, he faces death with a 
smile. It sent him charging in the open against Max- 
ims and the "British square" at Tel-el-Kebir and at 
Omdurman — to be mowed down like grass. He is a 
pessimist and takes his religion very seriously. My 



92 Around the World in a Year 

attention was once called to a man, alone in the middle 
of a big garden-patch — evidently in the midst of work 
to be done there, — who was bobbing up and down, and 
I stopped and studied his actions. He would stand 
erect with eyes fixed afar, then drop to his knees and 
swing his head to the ground two or three times, his 
forehead touching. He would then straighten up and 
do it all over again, and again. That fellow had tem- 
porarily stopped work and was absorbed in his prayers, 
and utterly unmindful of his conspicuity or of my 
presence. His slippers were carefully laid aside and 
he was facing towards Mecca, repeating the Koran 
and abasing himself. We saw this all over Egypt; 
at the river's edge, in the market-place, and on the 
lower deck of our tiny steamboat. Yes, their religion 
is very real to them. When the little vessel was 
aground, the natives would pole her off, vociferously 
singing a chant the while with frequent repetitions of 
a line ending with "Allah, la, la, lah!" I once asked 
the white engineer, who had been on the river a long- 
time, what they were saying, and was told they were 
calling on God — in so many words — to help them off 
the shoal. Such religion calls for respect, at least. 
The Koran is the sum-total of book-learning for most 
of them. On passing any building in the native quarter 
of Tangier, Algiers or Cairo, you are likely to hear 
the noise of monotonous repetition from within, like 
an infant class answering in concert. If curious, you 
will probably find it is a native school and that the 
children are learning the Koran by rote. It is six 
thousand years since the Pyramids were built. What 
have over half this world's people to show for that 
tremendous interval of opportunity? 



LORD CROMER 

Becoming somewhat informed on the wonderful 
progress this land of Egypt has made since the British 
occupation in 1882, and having seen so many evidences 
of its present sweeping prosperity, I had a desire to 
meet Lord Cromer, whose name was frequently coupled 
with it and who was held in very high esteem by all 
classes. Since the occupation he had been Britain's 
representative, with the title of "His Majesty's Agent 
and Consul-General. ' ' In reality he had all along been 
and was then the ruler of Egypt, although everything 
was done in the name of "The Egyptian Government," 
which, except as it referred to him and his assistants, 
was a sort of abstraction — every portfolio and depart- 
ment of the government having an English deputy 
chief, appointed by Cromer — who met with him as a 
cabinet, daily. It was conceded that to his efforts, 
more than to all else, should be credited the emancipa- 
tion of the Fellaheen millions from their former 
wretched state, which was but little removed from 
slavery — from enforced labor, the frequent lash of tax- 
gatherers, the clutch of the usurers and from abject 
ignorance. Nothing could be more rotten than the 
former Turco-Egyptian rule. But by the exercise of 
pure purpose, an iron will and most consummate tact 
this strong man had gradually changed things, so that 
there are justice and honesty in the government and 
order and contentment among the people. 

93 



94 Around the World in a Year 

In common, I suppose, with many others, the princi- 
pal citizen of anywhere always had for me unusual 
interest, whether he be President of a great republic 
or only an Arab village Sheik. By virtue of his leader- 
ship he becomes a character study and a problem in 
sociology. In Lord Cromer I recognized one of the 
few great civilians left in English public life. Glad- 
stone gone; Cecil Rhodes gone; Dufferin gone. Who, 
by his achievements, has the right to be considered in 
the class with Cromer, except it be Chamberlain, Mor- 
ley, Milner or Curzon? The greatest of them all, in 
my humble opinion, is this constructive statesman, 
whose resolute and sympathetic rule has brought peace 
and prosperity to Egypt and given Britain so many 
moral claims upon that country that her ill-considered 
promise to quit is by almost general consent of those 
most concerned released and reversed. His task was 
one of immense difficulty — necessarily so because of 
the whimsical Turkish sovereignty and the Franco- 
English partnership which confronted him. In addi- 
tion to his great work for the uplifting of the native 
masses he has, without friction, shouldered Turkey out 
of the wa}^, strengthened and guided the Khedive and 
done much to bring in the recent relinquishment of 
France. I think no one acquainted with Egypt's past 
and present will deny this statement of the case or 
begrudge high praise to Lord Cromer. 

I was pleased to receive an appointment to meet 
Lord Cromer in private audience, and much enjoyed 
the meeting. To be accorded a few moments from so 
busy and useful a life was a favor to which a mere idler 
like myself could never entitle himself. His conversa- 
tion disclosed the straightforward and forceful, though 



Lord Cromer 95 

just and kindly man that he is; and like most all the 
men of mark I ever met, he looks the part. He 
seems full-stocked with energy, hut his hair is be- 
coming white. What a pity it is such men must 
grow old! 



ALEXANDRIA TO ATHENS 

The season in Egypt had been unusually gay, but 
was now waning; and as it was getting hot in Cairo 
we bethought ourselves of the unsettled claims of the 
rest of the world upon us. We had never been to 
Greece ; and the Olympic games, which promised to be 
of special interest this time, were to begin in about 
two weeks. We, therefore, bid good-bye to the land of 
the Pharaohs and proposed to spend a leisurely three 
or four weeks in Greece. It was glorious to have time 
enough to live awhile in such interesting places rather 
than hurry along as on our former tours abroad. 

The crossing from Alexandria to Piraeus, the port 
of Athens, was made in one of the Russian boats, which 
did the six hundred and twenty miles in just two days. 
Many were leaving Egypt and berths on all lines had 
been engaged for weeks. We booked ten days ahead 
and were considered lucky to have found any foothold. 
The ship was not only slow, but dirty and over- 
crowded. It was an uncomfortable passage. First- 
class passengers slept in the dining-room, passage- 
ways and on deck. In theory, at least, my people 
divided a room with a Greek lady who had six children 
and two nurses. She and two of the children occupied 
two and frequently three of the four berths, and the 
rest of the family were always there or thereabouts. 
To add to the discomfort, the lady, though badly sea- 
sick, objected to the port-hole being open. Of course 
no one with ordinary sense of smell could stay there. In 

9 6 



Alexandria to Athens 



97 



consequence, she was left in sole possession. The first 
night we tried for sleep on deck until driven by cold 
into the smoking-room, which became our bedroom both 
nights. I did attempt my berth for a few hours, but 
was sent away by the fleas. 

Notwithstanding this discomfort, the journey was 
made very pleasant indeed for us. The bright com- 




Temple of Victory on the Acropolis, Athens. 

pany of four English fellow-sufferers was the ' ' saving 
clause," as lawyers call it. A dashing young Captain 
of Engineers going home from India, and an Oxford 
graduate, recently made a barrister, were of the num- 
ber. Mr. Sidney J. Hall, the eminent artist, who sev- 
eral times has had the honor of being selected to paint 
royal marriage scenes and who was then on his way to 
Athens to illustrate the games for the Graphic, was 
also of the number. They made. as jolly a party as I 



98 Around the World in a Year 

ever joined, and redeemed an otherwise wretched situa- 
tion. One of the greatest delights of travel is the 
chance meeting with such choice spirits. 

At Piraeus we took carriage for Athens, about eight 
miles distant, along the new Marine Boulevard. On 
the way we noticed certain picturesque ruins on hill- 
tops and elsewhere looking wonderfully like the pic- 
tures in our schoolday History of Greece; passed the 
great marble Stadium where the games were to be held ; 
and landed safe and sound at the Hotel Grande 
Bretagne opposite the royal palace in Athens — to see 
Greece before we die, sure enough. We were six 
weeks in Greece. 



ATHENS 

Though it was Sunday when we reached Greece, a 
general election for deputies was in full blast. Ex- 
cited crowds about polling-places, cabs hurrying voters 
there, and the many poster portraits of candidates made 
up a familiar scene. There were also things unfa- 
miliar. Bicyclists, with their caps and wheels dec- 
orated with the portrait of their candidate, were rush- 
ing through the streets shouting his name in an ex- 
plosive staccato. The supporters on the walks, catch- 
ing up the refrain and following suit with vim, caused 
a singular rattle of noise and name like that from a 
Maxim gun, as the cyclers went. Our campaign com- 
mittees might well take note of this fire-cracker chorus. 
We also observed many soldiers doing active duty 
about the polls. That, though, is a difference which 
goes without recommendation here. 

We learned of hot party strife in Greece. In name it 
is between the ministerialists and the opposition; but, 
practically speaking, the struggle is between the ' ' ins ' ' 
and the "outs." Their elections are generally accom- 
panied with bloodshed, and this one was no exception. 
The night before our arrival in Athens, while the 
ministerialists were holding a meeting in Constitution 
Square in front of the hotel, the opposition gathered 
and made a rush to break it up. Shooting began, and, 
before the cavalry charged into the fighting crowd and 
cleared the Square, there were one killed and fifteen 
wounded. What do you think of this modern Greek 

99 



ioo Around the World in a Year 

way of trying to carry an election? Such carnage 
should not be mentioned lightly ; but how much better, 
or, I should say, how very differently are results ob- 
tained in America, where the "barrel" is not the re- 
volver 's ; and where more votes are bought and /paid 
for at every polling-place in the great cities than there 
were killed and wounded in Athens. With such an easy 
illustration of the peaceful running of popular govern- 
ment, where, it may be asked by the thoughtless, was 
the necessity for such carnage? 

King George holds himself aloof from the party poli- 
tics of his realm. He had betaken himself to Corfu 
just before this election, to prevent, I - suppose, the 
impression that palace influence was being exerted. 

We have come now to a country where the mustache 
becomes mustaschio — though you try to spel] it in 
English — it is so fierce ; where milk is sold direct from 
the goat at your door; and where grown men salute 
each other in public with the kiss. And also where 
the gentleman soothes his nerves with a circlet of beads 
hanging from his left hand, which he involuntarily 
fingers. At first I thought it some religious contri- 
vance, a sort of rosary as in the Roman Catholic Church, 
or a Koran-reminder as among Mohammedans; but 
after seeing them in use in gay assemblies I was "put 
upon inquiry," as those lawyers say. I am convinced 
this Grecian custom of fumbling beads as a soporific 
accomplishes the purpose and is eminently sensible.- 
Like swinging a cane or puffing a cigar, it gives some- 
thing to do that requires no thought in the doing. Be- 
sides, that vexed question of what to do with the hands 
is answered at last. Let all amateur actors take note. 

There are, perhaps, more local customs pertaining 



Athens 101 

to funerals than to anything else. In Algiers we saw 
the native father carrying the corpse of his little child 
through the crowd up the hill of Arab-town to the 
cemetery. The wee body was on a board covered with a 
bit of colored cloth and held high in both hands. No 
particular notice was taken, for it was the Arab custom 
there. Here in Athens the usage, an ancient one, is to 
partly expose the corpse to public gaze while on its 
way to burial. The shallow coffin is left uncovered, 
showing at least one-half the dear departed. A man 
carrying the coffin-lid bolt-upright, always heads the 
procession — and a most inelegant and awkward lead it 
is. He is followed by one or more chanting choristers, 
and then by priests in their inverted top-hats, virginal 
beards and long gowns. After which come four bearers 
carrying the open coffin and exposed body. An empty 
gilded hearse — if there be means sufficient — is next in 
line, and then the relatives and friends; all at a slow 
walk. After leaving the church, the still exposed body 
is placed in the glass-sided hearse — if there be any. 
In that way it makes the last journey. The men on 
the walks respectfully lift their hats and cross them- 
selves as it passes. 

When I first saw a Grecian funeral procession it was 
of a man fully one-half exposed and lying there so 
still and lifelike, it was really startling. I was told 
by an old resident, with me at the time, that the ap- 
pearance of the central figure in these processions is 
often very horrifying. Were I to repeat a German 
lady's story of her impressions on seeing a pair of 
white kid shoes, toes up, coming toward her in what 
proved to be one of these funeral processions, I should 
be laying myself open to the charge of undue levity. 



102 Around the World in a Year 

Much depends on the point of view, and hers, it will 
be admitted, was not provocative of solemnity. 

Good Friday processions in Greece and their Easter 
festivals furnish such sights as most travelers go trav- 
eling for to see — and to see both was our good fortune. 
The one from our window in the early evening, the 
other at midnight outside the Metropolitan Church — 
their principal church, over which the Metropolitan or 
Archbishop presides. The great squares were fes- 
tooned in light, hotels were illuminated, and the streets 
beflagged and fluttering with color. In and out the 
densely crowded streets and squares the Good Friday 
processions wound their way — each congregation form- 
ing a separate procession — -with their sacred icons, 
banners and relics, and long-haired priests in vest- 
ments in the lead. All who marched and all who looked 
on, except the strangers, carried lighted tapers, adding 
to the glare. These things and the dirge music, chant- 
ing of the priests and slow winding of the processions 
through the stilled crowds which, in fullest sympathy, 
stood bareheaded and crossing themselves, gave that 
dignity and solemnity so appropriate to the occasion. 

Their Easter festival was grander, with a tinge of 
gayety; but gayety that never was frivolity. It was 
a repetition in respect to the illuminations, the lighted 
tapers and the crowds, but there was no procession 
except a very short one, just before midnight, from 
the great church to a platform in the square in front. 
The platform was festooned with lights and supported 
an altar. One side of the platform was crowded with 
the elite of Athens — something of a beauty show — and 
certainly a most successful toilette display. On the 
other side were the military chiefs in gayest uniforms, 



Athens i o 



3 



dignitaries of the state, and the Crown Prince and his 
brother — both done in much gold. The Princes, with 
their showy body-guards clanking before and behind, 
had made a state entry. At the open-air altar were 
high-priests in their richest robes. A very notable and 
beautiful scene indeed. At the stroke of midnight the 
Metropolitan, who has a grand presence and a seraphic 
countenance, impressively declared "He Is Risen," 
at which guns were fired, bells clanged, tension was re- 
laxed and the ceremonies were at end. We were fortu- 
nate in getting good places, and thought the Athenian 
Easter ushered in most beautifully. 

Careful inquiry of those in position to know leads 
me to believe that while King George is personally very 
popular, and deservedly so, both he and his Russian- 
born Queen are looked upon by the Greeks with a cer- 
tain distrust. Nationality is very highly prized by 
them — their glorious ancient history would compel this, 
— and, though their sovereign was elected, they feel 
that he was picked out for them by the Great Powers 
who meddled in their affairs, and that in the last anal- 
ysis he represents and depends upon them rather thau 
upon the Greek people. I sympathize with the Greeks 
in this. 

We made no mistake in coming to Greece at this 
time. The entry of King Edward and Queen Alex- 
andra into Athens to attend the Olympic games fur- 
nished us another brilliant show. They came attended 
by the Prince and Princess of Wales and by some 
other royalties and their retinues. Weather conditions 
were perfect — as fine a spring afternoon as was ever 
enjoyed. The streets and squares and buildings were 
decorated. ' Nothing in the way of street decoration 



104 Around the World in a Year 

I had ever seen approached it. The royal yacht was 
convoyed by a British squadron to Piraeus, and the gun 
announcing its arrival there was heard in Athens about 
three o 'clock, and, though they were an hour away, the 
streets about the palace and line of route were even 
then packed with people. Athens was indeed very full. 
Hotels were charging double rates, and it was easy 
to see where the people were coming from to fill the 
seats in the great Stadium the next week. The entry 
was a grand affair. Continental people manage page- 
ants more successfully than we. They have much more 
gold lace and showy material to work with. Kings 
George and Edward were in one carriage and Queens 
Olga and Alexandra in the next. Then came the Prince 
and Princess of Wales and the other notables — a most 
illustrious and puissant group, you will agree. And 
Athens' welcome was unmistakably hearty. When the 
English King and Queen appeared on the balcony of 
the palace the great crowd cheered often and long. 
The King and his ever-graceful consort both appeared 
to fine advantage, and were kept busy making their 
acknowledgments. World politics may have to do with 
this popularity of the English sovereign. Perhaps the 
Greeks think they see in England a future protector 
of such independence as is left to them. 

Coming ashore in a foreign land between lines of 
his warships which had gone out to meet him ; then pos- 
tillioned between regiments at "present arms" to the 
palace where a great crowd awaits with its cheers, 
would seem to be an every-day occurrence with genial 
King Edward, so comfortably and at ease did he seem 
and so well did he fit the occasion. Personality as well 
as those world politics may have had to do with it, but 



Athens 



105 



it is the imagination that is stirred. It is what he 
stands for and the history that clings to his ancestry 
that draws the crowd. 

While witnessing the glorious reception the foreign 
sovereign got from Athens, I could not help thinking- 
it was this same Athens which imprisoned its own 
great Socrates on the lonely hillside — in that tomb-like 
hole in the rock — visited by me earlier the same day. 
The foreign King as its guest will dine sumptuously 
to-night. But he of the giant intellect and the purest 
philosophy — for daring to speak lightly of heathen 
temples and deities — was by his own countrymen made 
to drink the fatal hemlock. What freakish creatures 
we are. How times have changed. 

Eight here I venture to express the opinion, though 
of course it is none of my business, that the King and 
Prince of Wales should not be absent from their coun- 







Jti»' 



f ^ 





Prison of tSocrates, Athens. 



106 Around the World in a Year 

try at the same time; or together attending the same 
great gatherings. If, as I believe, serious duty forms 
part of the king-business and that an adult can perform 
that duty best, surely it is unwise for King and Crown 
Prince to be at the joint risk of a possible catastrophe 
which could cast the titular headship of a great nation 
upon a stripling grandson. Putting all the eggs in the 
same basket has often proved bad management, and 
perhaps there is need of amendment to the British 
constitution. I can doubt the correctness of this opin- 
ion only because I never heard it advanced. 

The little kingdom of Greece, no bigger than West 
Virginia and with a population no greater than the 
state of Georgia, burdens itself with a standing army 
of twenty-eight thousand, though its autonomy, fron- 
tiers and future are practically guaranteed by the Great 
Powers — are certainly in their keeping. If in like 
proportion, the peace footing of the regular army of 
the United States would aggregate more than a million 
men. It is a Constitutional monarchy, but militarism is 
just now rampant. I know the wicked Turk is always 
at her door, but still it does seem overdone. I hear 
there are eighteen hundred commissioned officers in 
active service with the Grecian army, and quite be- 
lieve it. Nearly all of them must be stationed in 
Athens. They are in evidence there at every turn, 
especially at the cafes. They are a fine-looking, well- 
groomed class, and carry themselves like fine gentle- 
men, which no doubt, as a rule, they are. But an officer 
to every sixteen men keeps the men pretty busy salut- 
ing. I was amused watching the frequency with which 
a private soldier, strolling through the streets, — and 
there are always many such, — is required to salute his 



Athens 107 

military superiors. Going by the open-air cafes gave 
him plenty of exercise, which was languidly and un- 
happily performed. Of course the officers return every 
one of these salutes and salute each other. Thus among 
the soldiery in this compact little city of Athens, where 
people cannot get very far from each other, the ever- 
lasting military salute becomes a vexation of spirit; 
and, as nearly as possible, mechanical and meaningless. 

The subject of standing armies shall not be discussed 
here at any length. As a general proposition, though, 
without reference to any particular country — certainly 
not Greece, — is it not true that when the police of a 
civilized country and its citizen militia cannot pre- 
serve order, the reason must be deep-seated and there 
is need of a change in the government of that country 
which should not be prevented by a standing army un- 
der the pay of that government? Standing armies are 
a continual menace to the peace of the world and the 
liberties of the people, besides making tremendous 
draft upon young life and material resources. All that 
is wanted, it seems to me, is an agreement upon the 
status quo, and good faith between nations — a formula 
respectfully submitted to the next Peace Congress. A 
soldier trained in the art of killing and furnished with 
weapons to disable and give pain is a horrible anomaly, 
a lingering relic of a darker age. I well know that 
this subject is controversial and that these propositions 
border on the Utopian and take no account of defence 
against a wicked and marauding neighbor. But then 
if the wicked neighbor has no standing army his wick- 
edness need cause no fear. At any rate, let us keep 
our ideals well shined. 

With due apology to the more scholastic reader and 



108 Around the World in a Year 

with a salaam to his superior outlook, I will confess that 
to see the Olympic games had been to me the principal 
reason for this visit to Greece. Notwithstanding that 
birthday on the Nile, we were still young, and glad of 
it. Had it not been for the games, a slightly belated 
run across India would have been made — that is to sav, 
a crossing after April 1st, which the guide-books tell 
tourists is so torrid a job it must never be attempted. 
We had the wish to complete the tour inside a year, 
and had been made a little bold on the subject of India 
in May, or June, or even July, by a certain colonel in 
the Indian Army whom we met at Assuan. He had 
lived in India thirty-eight years, and told us those 
months were indeed preferable, as travelers are few — 
because of the guide-books — and best places at hotels 
and best prices at the bazaars could then be had; and 
that any one who had lived in London could easily 
manage the rains. We were almost persuaded to defy 
the guide-books and, when finished with Egypt, to 
head for the canal and far East ; but so many others 
gave us the opposite view — and then those Olympic 
games so attracted us — we were dissuaded. One of 
our advisers suggested that thirty-eight years in India 
had so incinerated the colonel that he was no longer 
safe authority for the novice. Another called him 
the "Terra-Cotta Colonel," and by that title he has 
since been known to us. If I had been alone, I am sure 
I would have gone through on his advice. India, by 
this decision of ours, being closed to us till about No- 
vember next, we had the very pleasant necessity of em- 
ploying our time until then somewhere (or wheres) in 
Europe. That was the situation when in Alexandria 
we pointed for Greece. 



Athens 109 

But about those Olympic games. My reader must 
know that they were renewed only ten years ago after 
an interval of over fifteen hundred years. How is that 
for an interval! All but the last seventy-five years 
were, for Greece, her long dark ages. From .earliest 
Greek days and for centuries these games were regu- 
larly held every fourth year at Olympia. Each of the 
four years was called an Olympiad, and the games were 
in such high and almost sacred repute in Greece that 
their recurrences were numbered and served to mark 
the flight of time and indicate the year, for all pur- 
poses. Ten years ago the Stadium at Athens became 
the new home of the Olympian games; and, in all prob- 
ability, will so remain for all hereafter. It is a truly 
magnificent amphitheatre, a horse-shoe structure, built 
all of white marble into a ravine on the site of the 
ancient Stadium, Avhere athletic meetings were held an- 
nually in the years between the Olympiads. Its great 
size is indicated when it is known it has a seating 
capacity of sixty thousand; and, on terraces and 
in aisles, standing-room for ten thousand more. In 
olden time only the sons of Hellas could compete, but 
now all nations are invited, the only restriction being 
that every competitor must be an amateur to the core. 
This year, partly owing, I suppose, to the presence of 
the King and Queen of England and the other em- 
inences, and also to the extraordinary preparations, 
the interest was enhanced, and it is said to have brought 
about the greatest athletic tournament the world has 
ever seen. As they furnished us sights and sensations 
not a few, let some recollections of the Olympian games 
be recounted. 

The Stadium was used by the athletes for their prac- 



1 1 o Around the World in a Year 

tice during several afternoons before the games, and 
when it became known that for a small toll entrance 
was allowed, among many others, I took advantage 
of the opportunity. Thousands saw the champions of 
the nations putting the finishing touches to their prep- 
arations. It may have taken the edge off the games 
for some who looked in at the rehearsals and, among 
poor Greeks, have hurt the sale of tickets. I saw one 
unfortunate runner with a badly sprained ankle hob- 
bling back from his practice with a countenance most 
forlorn. Poor fellow, his chances for distinction were 
blasted at the threshold ! 

It rained quite briskly on the first day while the 
great audience was getting seated, bringing out a sea 
of umbrellas. For a while things looked black for new 
Olympia, and I expect many a gown was spoiled. The 
elements had not been appeased. Modern thought may 
have put the rest of the gods out of business, but 
old Jupiter Pluvius was attending to his at the same 
old stand. Fortunately it did not last long, and there- 
after, to the last day, the games were favored with 
perfect weather. 

The formal opening consisted of a walk past, as it 
were, executed by the Kings, Queens, Princes, and 
Powers. They went slowly up centre to the music of 
seven bands, each in turn playing either "God Save the 
King" or Greece's own beautiful anthem as the august 
procession passed. The people cheered; but it might 
be said they did not overdo it. There was plenty of 
first-class curiosity in the air which was being well 
sated, but, somehow or other, at the opening number 
enthusiasm was not plenteously stirred. When the 
King of England and the Queen of Greece settled into 



Athens 1 1 1 

the two purple covered marble thrones, they probably 
looked upon a scene and faced an audience such as were 
not duplicated even in their experiences. Theme, place, 
and audience being considered, the occasion was indeed 
unique. 

King Edward, who is credited with keeping all the 
nine commandments, — more than can be said to have 
been kept by many of his predecessors, — looked big 
and happy. For me he personifies "Merrie England of 
ye-olden-tyme, " and synchronizes less with the more 
prosy England of the now ; and I am glad of that, also. 
He is a skilled hand in what might be called dynastic 
diplomacy, and most successful in the use of silence 
and show. He knows as well when to review his fleets 
or visit a foreign court as when to keep quiet or send 
a telegram. I suspect the world owes even more than 
it thinks to kindly old Edward VII. who then faced the 
Olympian audience. By the way, to be made the sub- 
ject of the simultaneous thought of such a throng and 
the focus at such short range of its fifty thousand pairs 
of eyes, must be penetrating; and involve several prop- 
ositions in animal magnetism or telepathy, the solu- 
tion of which is gladly left to others; except that if, 
under such conditions, there be no transference, there 
cannot, in my opinion, be anything in either. 

When the games were thus by sovereign will declared 
open, the seven hundred athletes were put in evidence, 
grouped in nations, and marched around. The Crown 
Prince of Greece, tall and manly, showing his Danish 
origin, then stepped into the arena, and, backed by the 
International Committee of Arrangements of which he 
was the honorary head, and by the athletes, and facing 
the thrones, delivered a short opening address — done, 



112 Around the World in a Year 

of course, iu Greek. Very brief as it was, in the course 
of it he ducked a dozen times into a paper he held, de- 
pending slavishly upon his notes. Why did he not com- 
mit it to memory ? Any schoolboy could have done it in 
two hours. I don't like to fiud fault, but this is a chron- 
icle of impressions and I will be honest with my read- 
ers. The athletes who followed him had rehearsed for 
months ; their memories as well as muscles were taxed. 
Look at this brilliant audience. Sixty thousand in such 
a place, and the proceedings opened in this half-baked 
fashion. The Prince missed a grand chance of serv- 
ing the cause of royalty wherein it most needs service. 
At the Olympian games of old, poets recited their best 
verses and artists exhibited their masterpieces; but 
here, with everything ripe for a new Demosthenes, if 
that were possible, they turn out a handsome Prince 
slavishly reading his few lines from notes. And of 
course but little attention was given. 

The fifty or more athletes from the United States 
were much feared by all the others. The fear proved 
well grounded ; for, though in number of points scored 
they came away second to France, they forged ahead 
of all other countries. In fairness, and without dis- 
paragement of the doughty athletes from France, it 
should be said that the Americans won a greater pro- 
portion of "contests entered," and more of those 
which were decided in the Stadium, than the champions 
of any other country. Their flag was hoisted oftenest. 
The French entered more contests than they, and their 
lead came from successes in the lighter kind of en- 
counters, such as fencing, tennis, and with the duelling 
pistols, played off outside the arena — in none of which 
was any American entered. America won the hun- 



Ath 



ens 



ll 3 



dred yards and the mile run and also the mile walk. 
They won all the jumps, except with the pole ; and even 
the free-hand throwing of the discus, which the Greeks, 
next to the Marathon, set their hearts upon and con- 
sidered theirs by historical right, fell to thejn. We 
saw Daniels beat all comers in the hundred yards 
swim, and heard enough to know the other countries 
were glad he did not start for the mile. 

The second Sunday afternoon Sophocles' "(Edipus 
Tyrannus" was given at the Stadium by actors from 
the Ivoyal Theatre Company on a stage erected in the 
arena. I understand there was a goodly ten thousand 
in the audience. Wife and daughter were there, and 
claimed to have been much edified. The greatest of 
Greek tragedies, rendered in old Greek under such aus- 
pices, must have been a rich treat to the foreign pro- 
fessors of Greek who were quite numerous in Athens 
just then. I chose, instead, a twelve-mile walk on the 
old Marathon road. While they were playing at killing 
Laius, King of Thebes, I was taking a breather and 
nursing thoughts of the long ago when the first Mara- 
thon run was made to such purpose; and of him who 
would be the modern imitator and speed first along 
that same twenty-five miles the next Tuesday. The 
first brought Athens news of the defeat of the Persian 
hosts and then dropped dead; the last would tell of 
defeat of all his rivals and, I hoped, would live long to 
wear the laurel that awaited him and to enjoy echoes 
of the plaudits which would greet him. Besides this 
play of pleasant reverie and the breather, which the 
walk on the road to Marathon furnished, I came upon a 
regular Grecian peasant dance in full swing, one of the 
very things to see and for which I had been looking. 



114 Around the World in a Year 

Taking the walk by and large I believe it amply rec- 
ompensed for missing the play, rendered in old Greek. 
But what happened to the Marathon race, left to the 
last, to which all the other contests were subordinate? 
At the previous games, ten years before, Greece won it, 
and she wanted it now — especially as her victories in 
the games were thus far extremely meagre. I think 
most of the strangers wished Greece to win. The 
amount of pent-up cheers, awaiting any Greek who 
should break first into the Stadium, from, say sixty 
thousand Greeks, one-half impatiently seated there, the 
others on "Dead Head Hill" overlooking; and they, 
aided and abetted by about thirty more thousands of 
strangers, would have been worth coming miles to hear. 
An inkling of it was given whenever a Greek got a 
place or acted as if he might win at something. I was 
told by Greeks in semi-confidence that the road was 
quite too hard, long, and hot for any but a Greek 
mountaineer inured to it. I also had private advices 
to the contrary, notwithstanding, regarding a certain 
English runner and also about a certain American 
runner, and began to realize blood was up and how 
keen a struggle it would be. Well, Greece did not win 
it, nor was she better than fifth. Canada won it mag- 
nificently, with Sweden second, seven minutes away, 
and the United States of America a great third — only 
three minutes behind that. It was truly a grand sight 
to see the world's champion — as fine a specimen of 
vigorous manhood as you could wish — looking fresh 
and happy and wearing his colors, dash into the 
Stadium and speed up the long arena to be greeted and 
crowned by the King; flanked all the way by the Crown 
Prince and Prince George, his brother, who both kept 



Athens 115 

pace with him— the people cheering mightily. The 
generosity of Greece was being bitterly tested, and 
shown to be intact. And was that not a beautiful com- 
pliment from the Princes? It left with me the im- 
pression that perhaps they understood their business 
after all; and also, that they were badly winded by 
those seven hundred feet, only, put in with the runner 
who had just reeled the twenty-five toilsome miles be- 
hind him. 

The herculean struggle lasted through eight days, 
the great audience following them to the end with un- 
diminished numbers and interest. About every kind 
of athletics was seen, including hurling the javelin, 
throwing the discus, tug of war, rope climbing, and 
Greco-Roman wrestling. The British sovereigns were 
in attendance but twice. It would not be compatible 
with their elevation to let sixty thousand people tire 
of looking at them do nothing. They were probably 
there not so much to satisfy their desire to see as to 
testify their interest in Greece and be seen. I think 
their coming and going were both well timed. 

My observation leads me to believe that athletics in 
moderation, as exercise in physical culture, is healthy ; 
but that competitive athletics, which calls out that last 
ounce, is hurtful. A medical examiner of long expe- 
rience for a life insurance company once told me that, 
with but two exceptions, he never examined an appli- 
cant who was or had been an athlete, commonly so 
called, that he did not find heart disease or traces of it. 
The collapsing of five out of Harvard's ''eight" as 
she crossed the line second in that four-mile race at 
Poughkeepsie a few years ago, which I saw, was an ob- 
ject lesson and an instance which could be multiplied; 



1 1 6 Around the World in a Year 

and that without recourse to the fearful list of casual- 
ties in football. This Marathon racing was no excep- 
tion. Conditions did not favor the runners. The after- 
noon was unusually hot, the road is without shade, very 
dusty, — the sun was in their faces all the way and they 
had at least two long hills to climb. It was an ugly job. 
Out of the fifty-five starters only eleven finished. The 
winner, as was said, came in in apparently good condi- 
tion, and one or two of the others seemed quite able 
to take care of themselves, but most of those who 
reached the Stadium were in very evident distress. 
One poor fellow who finished had a hemorrhage near 
to the close, and one other seemed to me to be in hys- 
terics. He was so helpless that, though support was 
attempted on each side, he fell flat on the ground just 
after entering the enclosure. The gate to that en- 
closure was then closed, and the cheering people were 
left to their cheers, and he and the others to the attend- 
ing doctor. 

So much for those who went the distance. I don't 
know what happened to the forty-four who did not 
make it. Perhaps some of them, finding their chances 
hopeless, had the sense to drop out in time to avoid 
injury — but they had reputations to save, and to be 
among the first three in such a race spelled fame to 
them. Grit and good sense are not exactly synony- 
mous. Is it not fair to suppose that most of them sped 
on through the heat and dust, wrenching themselves, 
reckless of that last ounce, until the machines broke 
down, — punishing their hearts and lungs for just an- 
other mile, as if they were of little account or their 
worst enemies rather than their life's mainstays? 
What a waste of best material, and certainty of per- 



Athens 117 

manent injury. But muscular prowess will continue 
to claim its many worshippers, and excesses of all 
kinds their victims. 

The crowning item of the festivities was the illu- 
mination of the Acropolis. The battlements were out- 
lined in light; and searchlights from the warships — 
placed right at its feet — were focussed against the 
Parthenon, which shone like a fairy palace floating high 
in space and the surrounding darkness. The effect was 
ineffably lovely. 

Though our zest for archaeology had been severely 
strained in Egypt, we were compelled in Greece to take 
fresh interest in ruins. The Acropolis, the most fa- 
mous of the hills surrounding Athens, came to be a place 
of absorbing interest to us. On its top and sides 
are about half the ruins of the ancient city. Remains 
of temples, theatres, fortifications, gates, grottoes, 
tombs and arches crowd this hill which was the centre 
of Greek life in the heroic age. The Parthenon is its 
crowning glory. After it the Theatre of Dionysus and 
the Odeon of Atticus, which enrich its sides, filled us 
with most wonderment and pleasure. I must bear in 
mind, in thus briefly sketching the Acropolis, that the 
well-informed reader may consider it presumptuous, 
and wish to tell me my coal is coining to Newcastle. 

Both the theatre and Odeon were homes of the 
drama, and were in the zenith of their use when Greece 
was a Roman province. The Odeon was erected dur- 
ing that period, and in color and construction sug- 
gested to us the Roman Colosseum. Their amphi- 
theatres were excavated out of the rocky hillside. Fif- 
teen thousand found massive stone seats in the theatre, 
and nearly half that number could rest in the marble 



1 1 



Around the World in a Year 




Frieze and Part of Stage, Theatre of Bacchus, Athens. 



seats of the Odeon. There is no doubt about this, for 
you can count the seats in the one and easily trace 
them in the other. Such were the great theatres to 
which the ancient Greeks repaired to see the plays of 
their Sophocles and Euripides and their other drama- 
tists. Yet they claim that they can prove the world 
has advanced far during these two thousand years. 

The Parthenon, erected to the worship of Athena, is 
called "the most perfect monument of ancient art." 
It is certainly a delight to the e3^e. No picture I ever 
saw does it justice. We spent hours admiring its mel- 
low beauties and perfect proportions; and pondering 
upon its condition before those fifteen hundred long 
years, the last of them not so long since, through 
which it has passed, when Greece was almost 
an unknown land and it was always night with 



Athens 



119 



her. The story of the Parthenon is replete with 
vicissitude and charm. It is more than twenty- 
three hundred years old. For six hundred of them 
it remained the sanctuary of Athens' patron god- 
dess, and then became a Christian church. Following 
that, and for several hundred years, it was a Turkish 




Odeon of Attieus Herodes, Athens. 



mosque; and, when in 1687 the Venetians vanquished 
the Turks, the latter made their last stand against 
them here on the Acropolis, and the powder which they 
stored in the Parthenon exploded and the magnificent 
building suffered tremendously. 

A visit to the Acropolis does a person real good. It 
drives away all thought of mean things and gives an 
exalted idea of the innate nobility of man and his 
achievements. The proposition that man is derived 



1 20 Around the World in a Year 

from the monkey receives a severe jar. What though 
these temples and altars were erected to a heathen god- 
dess long since discarded, it was a reaching after 
heaven; and the enormous sacrifices necessarily made 
in their construction and the lines of beauty they es- 
tablished for all later periods, evince monumental pa- 
tience and an aim that was ideal. 

No one is received into the Greek Church except he 
be given the name of some saint — who then becomes his 
patron saint. Birthdays as we celebrate them are un- 
known. Instead there is the annual celebration of 
the patron saint's day at the church named after the 
saint to which all, from far and near, who have been 
given the name religiously repair. I learn that there 
are hundreds of churches in Greece open only this once 
a year, except for a few of the high festivals ; regular 
worship being attended by the people at other and 
what might be termed parish churches. This custom 
was reason for one other of the sights accorded us 
while in Athens. On St. George's Day, King George 
and his family, accompanied by the foreign diplomats, 
went in state to church. On inquiry we were told it 
was the King 's birthday and being celebrated as usual. 
It was the festival day of his patron saint, which fixed 
the date of King George's birthday for Greece — his 
august mother to the contrary, notwithstanding. 

We visited the ruins of the ancient burying-ground 
where monuments to Pythagoras and others of his time 
are seen, as also that celebrated sculptured bull, so 
often copied. But it was at the modern cemetery, out 
of town, that I first saw grave-lights — little lanterns 
hung low from the headstones and lighted on those 
days set apart to the saint for whom the respective de- 



Athens 1 21 

parted had been named, — another funeral custom, 
quite generally observed in both the Greek and Russian 
churches. When I first saw them it was in the gloam- 
ing, and I was the only live person in the cemetery. 
That I came near to being locked in for the night is 
of importance to the story, only because the little lights 
shining at me — will-o'-the-wisp like — through the trees 
and bushes recalled something I had read years before, 
stating, as a curious fact, that a phosphorescent light is 
sometimes seen at night in fat churchyards and 
crowded cemeteries moving over the place or hover- 
ing over the graves. And because new lights were 
springing into sight and others mysteriously vanishing 
while I strolled among the bushes and graves until I 
began to feel creepy — as if found out and being fol- 
lowed. Nothing like a mixture of death, darkness and 
nerves to produce that peculiar effect upon the hair. 
I was glad to find the gate. Was out just as the key 
was being turned and the cemetery locked for the 
night. Thanks. Of course if those scientists could 
prove the moving lights are indeed phosphorescent and 
are not unquiet spirits taking a preliminary look about 
prior to Judgment Day, there would have been no sense 
in hurrying to find the gate. 

Prince George, the King of Greece's second son, big 
and breezy, figured prominently in the management of 
the arena during the games. He was then the Governor 
of Crete. He it was who when traveling in Japan with 
the present Czar, then Czarowitz, courageously saved 
the life of the Czar by disarming the ruffian who made 
a murderous attack upon him. By the way, later dur- 
ing these journeyings we were at the hotel in Kyoto, 
Japan, which Prince George had left a few days be- 



122 Around the World in a Year 

fore. He must like Japan. In the games the Prince- 
Governor again proved himself a man of action. Those 
two unfair walkers whom he intercepted one after 
the other and put off the course and out of the race, 
although they were leading, will not require proof of 
this. As royal families go, I should say Greece has 
reason to be proud of hers. The Cretans are a tur- 
bulent race. Fighting is their normal condition, fight- 
ing and beating the Turks their long suit. Even then, 
under Prince George, who probably was as popular as 
any ruler could be there, they exhibited much unrest. 
The Cretans are a taller and handsomer people than 
the Greeks. In their national costume of top-boots, 
baggy trousers, Eton jackets, turbans, and knives, they 
divide with the kilted Albanians in making the streets 
of Athens gay. They are quarrelsome. The other day 
four Greeks were stabbed to death just back of the 
National Theatre in Athens. It did not cause any par- 
ticular excitement, because such things are more or 
less frequent. I first heard of it three days thereafter, 
from one in authority who said it was the work of Cre- 
tans. Centuries of Turkish misrule have demoralized 
this fine people. It will take time before they can 
gracefully accept any government. 

We thoroughly enjoyed Athens. Tea and toast on 
the terrace of the Akteon at New Phaleron by the sea 
is quite the thing to do, and it was done. Tea and toast 
when I was there last was a travesty upon the warlike 
panorama presented. At anchor in the placid little 
Bay of Phaleron, directly in front of the hotel, with 
steam up, were ten monster warships with a full com- 
plement of destroyers on the side and Lord Beresford 
in command — moved up from Malta towards Smyrna 



Athens 123 

and Constantinople. A naval demonstration against 
Turkey, which was twisting the lion's tail somewhere in 
the Sinai Peninsula. An insignificant Arab village 
just inside the line claimed by Egypt had been occu- 
pied by the Turk. It did not cost him much to do it. 
Up to a certain point he could do it quite safely, but 
from the looks of things at Phaleron then it was up to 
him to watch out. The air was sulphurous. The lion 
was getting into position, and Turkey was nearly due 
to back down again. It looked as though there was to 
be a dire sequel to this magnificent accessory to our 
afternoon tea and toast at the Akteon. 

Two visits were made to Parliament House while 
the deputies were in session. That which impressed 
me most was the soldiers doing guard duty at the en- 
trance, and the others stationed in the gallery. Ac- 
cording to our way of looking at it, they have some- 
thing yet to learn on the subject of freedom of speech. 
Their deliberations may some day be suddenly dis- 
turbed by a bad copy of Cromwell, appreciative of the 
power in the military arm. 

We made several detours into the country. One, 
across the Gulf of Salamis and through the Canal of 
Corinth to Itea and then through miles of olive groves 
to Delphi, which is at the foot of Mount Parnassus. 
At Delphi we dipped from the Castalian Spring which 
furnished purification for the pagan worshippers at 
the Temple of Apollo. The oracle has been silenced for 
fifteen hundred years, so that we had deferred our visit 
too long to secure a line on or rather prediction as to — 
well, several things we would have liked to know. 
What a gigantic fraud that Delphic oracle was. 

Other little journeys took us to the Convent of 



124 Around the World in a Year 

Daphne and to Eleuses ; to Nauplia and to prehistoric 
Mycenae. If we should attempt to give you the details 
of all that tasked our imaginations in Greece this 
sketch-book would grow beyond its plan. 

We were invited to a number of receptions, public 
and private ; and, at one of the latter, had pleasant con- 
verse with the Crown Prince ; all of which added to the 
social charm and interest of our stay in Greece. Do 
we need to offer any further proof that the six weeks 
there were to us most delightful ? I think, though, noth- 
ing so enchanted me as listening to the nightingales at 
sunset in the King's gardens, unless it be that illu- 
mination of the Parthenon. 



ATHENS TO CONSTANTINOPLE 

We bid good-bye to Greece aboard a Khedival liner 
as the vessel rounded Point Sunion on the way to 
Smyrna and Constantinople. I shall not soon forget 
the unfolding of the peculiar beauty of the island of 
Chios as I walked the deck at five o'clock the morning 
following, a few hours before reaching Smyrna, the 
first man up. 

I have taken part in many landings, but nowhere 
until here at Smyrna did I see the small boatmen 
nuisance so minimized. Usually it is a free-for-all of 
them to follow the ship to her anchorage and keep up 
their clashing and importunities for an hour before 
any passenger has need of them. At Smyrna the port- 
warden is a wonder. The waterside gentry there were 
held at the customs dock as in a leash, not only till 
the ship anchored, but until after the health authorities 
had passed her. A whistle was then blown, and in- 
stantly as pretty a half-mile race was begun as ever 
was seen. At least forty boatmen were entered, all 
struggling to reach the gangway first. I was looking 
at the city through the port-hole when the curious lull 
was on and when the strange performance came off; 
and it took the captain's explanation to set me right 
about it. 

Each of the four natives who rowed us ashore 
bristled with a sheathed stiletto. The guide told us 
poignards are very generally carried by the Turkish 
lower classes in Asia Minor, and. it is allowed by law ; 

125 



126 Around the World in a Year 

but that it is expressly unlawful for any one not a Turk 
to bear any weapon. I am sorry I did not carry the 
inquiry further and learn if the injunction applied to 
Armenians as well as Europeans, and, if so, whether 
that did not explain their apparently defenceless condi- 
tion and slaughter at-will ten years ago. Well, we got 
ashore all right — we paid what they asked. 

The Turkish city of Smyrna on the coast of Asia 
Minor is an exceedingly dirty place, and we heard there 
that Constantinople was even more so ; the correctness 
of which statement we afterwards verified. A drive 
about the city for several hours was in order, much of 
the way through narrow streets lined with miserable 
dwellings, each and every with its own private sewer 
system focussing upon an open drain in the middle 
of the roadway. The effect cannot be politely ex- 
plained, but it did not heighten our relish for Smyrna 
raisins or Smyrna anything else. There is not much 
to interest a traveler here that we heard of ex- 
cept the tomb of the martyr Polycarp, its first Chris- 
tian bishop, the ancient citadel, and the extensive 
Roman aqueducts — double arched, — all of which were 
duly noted. The voyage to Constantinople being re- 
sumed, late that night we stopped at the important 
island of Mitylene, recently made famous by a visiting 
French fleet as means of compelling Turkey to pay up. 

Safe passage was made through the straits of the 
Dardanelles, which the Greeks significantly called the 
Hellespont. We took notice of the three or four Turk- 
ish warships at the entrance; which, as a fiction of 
speech, guard it and bar the world's navies. When we 
left Athens, England's ultimatum had been given, 
the Turks' time was to expire the day following, and 



Athens to Constantinople 127 

it looked as if there would be pyrotechnics. There is 
much of the Quaker in our ideas on war, but it should 
be confessed that if war still must be, we would have 
considered ourselves, in the Dardanelles just at this 
time, as well placed, in the prospect of seeing what war 
looks like and how it sounds. After viewing the ten 
monsters with steam up and decks cleared at Piraeus, 
which were to be joined that evening by nine others 
just then dropping down from Malta — all booked for 
Turkish territory on business, — and then seeing these 
three or four Turkish warships at the mouth of the 
straits and the three others in the Golden Horn, dis- 
mantled and only partly paid for — well, it would have 
been a shame. 'Tis all over — for the present. The 
Turk is said to have made an outrageous move, but 
backed down at the very last moment, as usual. If 
he was not compelled to pay the expense of the dem- 
onstration, it will be repeated, of course. 

We marked well the place where Byron made his 
record swim, and could almost see him eagerly breast- 
ing the waves and shaking free his curly mane, as if 
the Maid of Athens beckoned. I concluded, though, 
that his reputation depends much more upon his verse 
than upon any very great difficulty there is in swim- 
ming that mile and a quarter. Indeed, if it can be told 
without her knowing it, I saw the younger lady in my 
own party do as daring a swim in less storied waters 
on an occasion. 

There were about a dozen veiled and hooded Eastern 
ladies aboard, traveling as a party and unattended, 
except by four or five very black fellows. All were in 
the first cabin, so-called, including the blacks. And 
that was hardly good enough, for part of the upper 



128 Around the World in a Year 

deck was screened off for their use so they could sit 
there unseen. These things and the swagger of the 
blacks — like cake-walkers off duty — and their good 
European clothes, made me curious. There is really 
nothing like a sea voyage for trifling. I asked the chief 
officer, and was told that the ladies were from the 
harems of a Turkish Imperial Commissioner stationed 
in Egypt and of some other Pasha, and that the 
blacks were eunuchs in attendance. Here was a ]ook-in 
at a strange phase of life. Wishing to know why 
servants, who were practically slaves, came to carry 
first-class tickets and to be expensively dressed, I 
was told that a eunuch's place is with the women, and 
that it is customary for rich Turks to dress them well 
"for the honor of the family." I learned that they 
are generally taken from the Upper Nile country, — 
caught young, as it were, — and are considered as slaves, 
being secretly bought and sold as such. They are use- 
ful principally as chaperons and indispensable, for, 
without one or more, it is not thought respectable or 
even possible for a woman of a harem to travel. Such 
responsibility breeds swagger in them. A head eunuch 
usually puts on more airs and is, for that matter, a 
more important party than a head waiter — and head 
eunuchs of some of the Sultans, history affirms, have 
had more influence than their Grand Viziers. Some- 
how or other I did not like those fellows. I was aware 
that one of them sat at the table near us, but I avoided 
looking at it. Of course we could not say which of 
the women were the wives, which their female servants, 
or whether all were simply females, and I say honi soit 
qui mat y pense — or words to that effect. In the course 
of the conversation the officer told me of some of his 



Athens to Constantinople 129 

observations while transporting harems, which in- 
cluded carrying the body of a certain Khedive to Con- 
stantinople accompanied by forty-five of the ladies of 
his immediate family. The annals of that voyage will 
probably never get into print. 

The harems that traveled with us and their dusky 
keepers were taken off in beautiful steam yachts, 
which came alongside when we anchored off Constan- 
tinople — indicating their financial standing, at least. 
Thus the Dardanelles and the Sea of Marmora, with 
their Byron, warships, harems and all, were traversed; 
and now the domes and minarets of Constantinople 
are in the foreground. 



CONSTANTINOPLE 

As we were but five days in Constantinople, we will 
not claim overmuch value for our opinions of the place. 
This, although we kept our eyes open and associated 
with and took counsel of the wise. 

It will be remembered that Constantinople, originally 
called Byzantium, was founded by the Greeks six cen- 
turies before the Christian era. It owes its place in 
early history more than all else to the fact that the 
great Christian Emperor Constantine, tiring of Rome, 
attempted to make of it the capital of the Roman Em- 
pire. His successor built a wall about the city, much of 
which is still standing, and all within its limits is Stam- 
bul, sometimes called Istambul. Here are Seraglio 
Point, the principal mosques, the tombs of the Sultans, 
the Great Bazaar and the public buildings. Stambul is, 
in fact, Constantinople proper, and all the rest is sub- 
urbs. I believe there are quarters where Greeks and 
Armenians are allowed to reside, but practically and 
overwhelmingly it is of the Turks Turkish. Stambul is 
the heart of Turkey, and, though not proclaimed sacred, 
as are Mecca and Medina, it is the headquarters of all 
Islam and, withal, the dirtiest city I ever saw — until I 
saw Canton. 

The Turkish language is a distinctive tongue, but a 
Turkish literature has yet to be born. In Constanti- 
nople the principal languages confronting a traveler 
are the Turkish, Greek and French. English is rarely 

130 



Constantinople i 3 1 

heard, and, if my observation was not misleading, there 
are few English and even fewer Americans there. 
Most of the Europeans live in Pera, the other side of 
the Golden Horn on the Bosporus. 

In no place in the world, except Thibet, is a for- 
eigner made more to feel that he is V Stranger than in 
Turkey. His passport must bear the vise of a Turkish 
consul, and is demanded at the threshold. To be found 
without one means deportation or trouble and back- 
sheesh in plenty, as an acquaintance of mine was made 
to know. 

It is now most difficult for a foreigner, unless he is 
a German, to get even a glimpse of the Sultan ; and if 
he is either English or American the difficulty is multi- 
plied. The Sultan is no more likely to be seen outside 
the Yildiz Palace grounds than is the Pope outside 
the Vatican. Since the last attempt upon his life the 
Sultan, it is said, has not left the boundaries of his 
palace except on a certain day in Ramazan — the great- 
est festival in the Mohammedan calendar — when re- 
ligious custom makes a visit by him to one of the great 
mosques obligatory. How dominant is their religion. 
To nothing else, so far as I could learn, is the Sultan 
beholden. He is the most absolute monarch on earth. 
There is no parliament, national assembly, or repre- 
sentative body, nor anything approaching one. Con- 
sequently there is no such thing in Turkey as public 
opinion. He accounts to no one. His word is the 
highest law. Everything and everybody in Turkey are 
at his disposal, and a naval demonstration or concert of 
the Great Powers — not an easy thing to obtain — are 
the only possible checks. What a cinch! He is said 
to own the Bosporus steamboats and to be principal 



132 Around the World in a Year 

owner of the Galata bridge and to enjoy the lion's 
share of the tolls paid by the swarms who nse that 
tumble-down affair. On the best authority I learned 
that the Sultan went to the rescue of the country's 
empty treasury at the commencement of the last Turco- 
Greek war and, from his own funds, paid the cost of 
mobilizing the army. Other potentates may wait on 
parliaments and they in turn upon the Rothschilds 
before declaring war, but the Sultan is not so 
hampered. He is his own parliament and war-chest 
besides. 

Of course we wanted to see the Sultan ; but after con- 
sultation, using some influence and careful study to 
that end, we gave it up. We learned that until very 
recent times he had been in the habit of making state 
visits to some city mosque every Friday — the Moham- 
medan Sunday, — but since a native priest, on one of 
those occasions, tried to murder him while entering 
the great mosque of Valideh, he has not — except at 
Ramazan — risked any promiscuous meeting with his 
people. Instead, he has had a private mosque erected 
within the palace grounds to which, in order, it is said, 
to show he is yet alive, as well as to pray, he goes in 
great state every Friday. This weekly procession 
from palace to private mosque, called the Selamlik, 
furnishes now the only opportunity for a foreigner to 
see the Sultan. And this is no easy matter, for only 
they can approach the palace gates for whom cards 
have been issued by the Foreign Minister, upon appli- 
cation made two days in advance by an ambassador, 
who not only must vouch for but accompany him — un- 
less his first secretary does. All this to obtain the 
privilege of simply glancing at the Sultan as he rides 




Singing Girl, Constantinople. 



Constantinople 135 

by. In almost any other country such influence would 
be sufficient to gain a private audience with the 
monarch. 

Not quite daunted, we tried for an admission to a 
Selamlik. At the American legation we were told it 
was practically impossible ; that, although a number of 
applications had been made for Americans, but one 
only had been granted in over a year, and that was in 
behalf of a certain ex-ambassador at another capital 
who held strong German influence. It seems that the 
rule is much relaxed in favor of the German embassy ; 
the Sultan, with some reason, considering the Kaiser 
his only friend in Europe. Methinks there will be a 
rude awakening and come a time when the Sultan will 
be called on to coin this whilom friendship for the wily 
Kaiser into benefits — and perhaps territory. Of course 
this difficulty of seeing the Sultan comes from his 
several narrow escapes and fear of assassination. So, 
though with most pacific intent and though duly certi- 
fied as safe and even respectable, we had to forego the 
satisfaction which a sight of the Sultan would have 
been to us vagrants. We heard that soon after our 
leaving Constantinople William Jennings Bryan was 
accorded admission to a Selamlik. But what of that? 
A candidate for the greatest place on earth — though, 
up to this writing, a defeated candidate — is of course 
granted privileges barred to ordinary mortals, for to 
let him in was a possible anchor to windward. From 
a friend living in Constantinople who recently saw 
the Sultan, we learned that he is thin and wizened, 
and has a nervous, hunted look. How could he be 
otherwise, weighted with the responsibilities of his 
large and interesting family, as well as the everlasting 



136 Around the World in a Year 

struggle to be let alone — to keep ahead of his pursuers 
and live? 

The Sultan lives in an atmosphere surcharged with 
intrigue and suspicion. No one is thoroughly trusted. 
The breech-blocks are removed from the cannon and 
the ammunition from the holds of the three warships 
at anchor in the Golden Horn, because they are within 
gunshot of the palace. While no voucher goes with 
this statement, our authority leaves us at least with no 
right to doubt. One of those ships was built in Italy, 
and, though delivery was made several years ago, pay- 
ment is still withheld. The character of the claim is 
unknown to us, but we were told at our hotel that 
agents of the constructors had recently camped there 
for four months while making fruitless efforts to get 
the pay. But the fact that these new vessels are, for 
such apparently dismal reason, rendered useless and 
that the bill for one is yet unpaid, did not prevent their 
being beautifully and expensively illuminated on the 
anniversary of the coronation, a picture of which we 
saw. 

There are no public telephones in Constantinople — 
a city of eight hundred and seventy-five thousand in- 
habitants, — and it is against the law to bring in any 
book or newspaper without first submitting it to offi- 
cial inspection. This gives the government a most 
effective weapon against hostile foreign opinion, and 
furnishes also a wide-open opportunity to the customs 
inspectors to graft upon travelers. Judging from my 
own experience, it is necessary to pay something on 
the side to avoid the delay attending the holding of 
baggage while a thorough inspection of guide-book 
and papers is made, which is their right and duty, in 



Constantinople 137 

a hunt for printed mention of anything against the 
Sultan or against Turkey and (such as it is) the peace 
and quiet thereof. So far as I learned, everybody, as 
matter of course, when either going into or coming 
away from Turkey contributes to this conscience fund. 
I did not hear what happens to newspapers mailed in a 
foreign country for delivery there, but noticed that 
each of the principal countries has its own post-office 
for the use of its subjects in the sending of their 
mail-matter from Constantinople. So far as I know, 
this arrangement is unique in Europe. In some of the 
Chinese treaty ports, I believe, I also saw it. There 
must be an interesting item or two hinging upon the 
establishment of those foreign post-offices in Constan- 
tinople, of which I am sorry to be ignorant. 

AVe spent an afternoon at Scutari, a suburb on the 
Asiatic side of the Bosporus, and there saw the howling 
dervishes swaying and kissing hands — and heard them 
howl. They used themselves up, as also us fools who 
paid. I could not make up my mind whether it was all 
the bad effects of the coin or, partly, a genuine religious 
exaltation. They impressed me unpleasantly, as did 
their whirling brethren of Cairo. But Scutari had 
some welcome things for us, for we saw the hospital 
where white-winged Florence Nightingale won her un- 
dying fame tending the sick and wounded of the 
Crimean War. Taking charge when the place, from 
shameful inefficiency, had become a charnel-house — a 
mere gateway to the burial trenches in the field adjoin- 
ing, — she and the large company of patriotic and de- 
voted women whom she led, purified the place and 
nursed many of the wounded and fever-stricken Eng- 
lish and French back to health, who elsewise were 



138 Around the World in a Year 

doomed. The record of their achievements and self- 
sacrifice makes up one of the brightest pages in history. 
It is now a Turkish military hospital; and the field 
that adjoined, where so conveniently were the burial 
trenches, is now the British cemetery, one of the best 
kept plots in or about Constantinople. 

There are thousands of homeless dogs on the streets 
of Constantinople. It has been so for centuries. They 
are everywhere. I have counted thirty, seen at a 
glance, and believe a careful look around from any 
point at any time would disclose at least a dozen. You 
are continually stumbling over or stepping over or 
going around them, for they seldom pay sufficient atten- 
tion to you to get out of the way. They let you alone ; 
are not vicious. That is the best that can be said of 
them, except that they stand for the almost complete 
lack of sewers and do at least half of the city scaven- 
gering. Muck and garbage are their delight, and what 
they do not eat I could not find out. The dogs of Con- 
stantinople are therefore an institution. No one 
thinks of molesting them. They have the right of 
way; and one of the commonest street sights is two 
to five of those disgusting creatures stretched in sleep 
together against the houses or in the middle of the very 
narrow walkways — : busy corners preferred. 

A curious fact about the Constantinople dog — and 
it is common information there — is that it never wan- 
ders from the immediate neighborhood in which it was 
raised. They live their whole lives in families or bands 
of, say thirty, in their own particular districts — the 
utmost bounds of which would be about three hundred 
feet of roadway. It is when a dog strays to the edge of 
his beat, or off it, that the scrimmages which fill the 




Street Merchant and the Dogs, Constantinople. 



Constantinople 141 

nights with yelping occur. It seems to be usual for 
householders to throw their refuse into the streets 
after dark — making of night the dogs' busy season. 
This not only accounts for the nocturnal barking, but 
also for the sleeping-sickness which seems to affect them 
during the day, when they are generally either asleep 
or lying down, or acting as if just going to do the one 
or the other. The fact that generations of them have 
lived whole lives in such narrow districts and fed so 
vilely has taken about all the joyous life and ranging 
qualities out of them. Constantinople dogs look re- 
markably alike — like no particular kind of dog be- 
cause, naturally enough, they look like every dog — a 
composite. Mangy, sad, and degenerate mongrels. I 
believe that were a man to stay a season in Constanti- 
nople it would be a long while before he could possibly 
recover his old-time love for a well-bred dog. 

A Friday afternoon in spring or fall on the Sweet 
Waters of Europe is always a sight — like unto the 
Thames at Richmond on a holiday. We enjoyed one 
such. Sweet Waters of Europe is the florid name given 
a dainty little river which winds into the Golden Horn, 
about four miles from Seraglio Point. We were rowed 
there in a caique, and we had with us a perfectly de- 
lightful little native Hebrew girl as guide. For sev- 
eral miles it was alive with boating parties, and both 
banks were also more or less crowded with holiday- 
makers. Many Turkish women were there, and the 
best possible opportunity was given us strangers to 
see and judge them. They kept entirely apart from 
the men. Neither seemed to have the faintest idea of 
the presence of the others. The veil was worn by the 
high caste, but carelessly, and some of them looked 



142 Around the World in a Year 

on from the recesses of their close carriages; but the 
display of female features was greater than we had 
yet seen in any of the Oriental countries. Even in Tur- 
key, where I believe the rule is less rigid than else- 
where, a woman of caste is seldom seen on the streets, 
and then only when closely veiled. But on the Sweet 
Waters the custom is relaxed, with the result that we 
took a respectful part in the discovery of a number 
of pretty faces. 

There are very many mosques in Constantinople, 
and at least half a dozen of them are really prodigious. 
Our guide showed us through several. The Mosque 
of St. Sophia, it will be recalled, is inventoried by 
many old writers with the "wonders of the world." 
It is certainly wonderful in its size, but, apart from 
the Emperor 's door and its many and varied columns 
— some of which were piously purloined by the early 
Christian builders from the heathen temples at Delphi, 
Ephesus and Baalbek, — it seemed to us pretty full 
of emptiness. The whole thing inside and out looks 
as if in need of a grand wash, and the neighbor- 
hood as well. We were not greatly impressed with St. 
Sophia. Perhaps it was too well heralded. I hope we 
have not become blase. We read that the original 
structure was built by Constantine about 326 a.d. ; that 
it was burned out twice and once rebuilt before Jus- 
tinian, who again rebuilt and greatly enlarged it; 
that for more than a thousand years it was a Christian 
church, and much gold and many precious stones em- 
bellished the interior, which we may suppose was truly 
gorgeous; that in 1459 a.d. the city was taken by the 
Turks, who added the minarets to the church and have 
ever since used it as a mosque. The Turkish minaret 



Constantinople 143 

is a distinctively thin, tall tower, and from one to four 
of them are attached to every mosque. They have 
landings, like those on the battle-masts of warships, 
from which, at stated times every day, the priests call 
the faithful below to prayer. This struck me as a 
rather beautiful custom, and one calculated to be ef- 
fective. How would it do for our clergymen to get 
up into their towers and in sonorous voice make an- 
nouncement, more or less personal, to all passing that 
now is the accepted time and that a few more seats 
are left — if there were any left? It would supple- 
ment the ringing of the church bell and be right in line 
with the scriptural injunction to "go out into the high- 
ways and hedges and compel them to come in. ' ' Why 
not? 

The teachings of the Koran are the Turks' vade 
mecum. Their laws are all founded upon it, and also 
most of their customs. It counsels them to be at home 
after dark, therefore — think of it — there are no street 
lamps in Stambul except at a very few places, for police 
purposes only. And, ostensibly for the same reason 
and by edict of the Sultan as well, a Turk is not allowed 
on the Bosporus at night, and would be warned or 
arrested if then found there. So in the name of re- 
ligion, forsooth, the most populous and important of 
the three cities which make up Constantinople is at 
night left in outer darkness, and the half-million Turks 
there are left to grope in gloom; and, for the same 
reason, there can be no boating after sundown for any 
of them. From the windows of the hotel at Pera, which 
overlooked congested Stambul across the Golden Horn, 
I noticed the nightly obscuration, and wondered at it 
before I became aware of the reason. I think that that 



144 Around the World in a Year 

Koranic precept is overworked. It may have been use- 
ful in the patriarchal days of the Prophet, and may 
still tend towards order and sobriety, but it sounds 
archaic to our western ears. I take the liberty of sus- 
pecting that the precept is enforced in these days more 
for political than religious reasons; for the practical 
effect is to prevent assembly and, therefore, possible 
uprisings and nasty surprises. Autocracy must go to 
such extremes to exist. 

From a Turkish ex-official, one who though not a 
Turk was for ten years high in the Sultan's service, I 
learned that government spies are everywhere ; and of 
the edict which forbids two Turks to converse together 
in any street, cafe or public place, except in the hear- 
ing of at least one other. The idea being to kill con- 
spiracy in the hatching, and the theory that, if there be 
a third, one at least would be suspected of spying and 
thus restrain the other two. Between the dark streets, 
the forbidden Bosporus and this crushing blow at free- 
dom of speech, we can see how the Turks are terrorized 
into a semblance of loyalty. 

The four hours of steamboating on the Bosporus 
which we did was thoroughly enjoyed. You, of course, 
know it is the strait beginning at Constantinople, 
eighteen miles long and half to one and one-half miles 
wide, which connects the Marmora and Black seas and 
divides Europe from Asia. I think it the most beauti- 
ful and interesting stretch of waterway of its size I 
ever saw; more so than lower Long Island Sound or 
even than the Iron Gates of the Danube — though not as 
grand as the latter. The scenery presented by both 
its shores is diversified, soft, and lovely. In some 
parts they are lined and at others dotted with the pal- 



Constantinople 



H5 



aces and parks of the Sultan and his relatives, the 
Egyptian Princes and the Pashas; and with the gar- 
dens and summer residences of the ambassadors and 
the rich. These, with two or three fine hotels, several 
mosques, kiosks and ruined castles, make of the Bos- 
porus a succession of pictures. The Sultan's magnifi- 




Dolma Bagtche, Palace of Sultan on Bosporus. 



cent marble palace at the water's edge, which for some 
reason or other — ghosts, gun-range or something else 
— is seldom occupied, quite filled my eye. The fine 
lattice screening the windows for about three hundred 
feet indicates the royal harem — and the size of it. In 
front the imperial yachts find anchorage. 

About midway of the Bosporus, and on both sides, 
are ruins of ancient Turkish castles where many gal- 
lant Sons of the Cross were immured in the Crusader 



146 Around the World in a Year 

days. And nearby, is where authentic history records 
the crossing of the devastating hosts of Darius into 
Europe. The Bosporus is full of charm and story. 
Indeed, after seeing it, Constantinople went up several 
points. Considered with the Bosporus it takes on a 
different tone. I heard of some other pretty suburbs 
across the harbor at Brusa, where Europeans also 
have homes. But taken altogether — dogs, dirt, smells, 
darkness, and all — I think Constantinople the slum of 
Europe. If it were not for the steep hillsides and con- 
sequent natural drainage, the dogs would not save it — 
plagues would wipe it out. 



CONSTANTINOPLE TO CONSTANZA 
AND ORSOVA 

Although we carried no contraband goods and only 
good intentions, it was necessary, as was said, to bribe 
our way through the Turkish custom houses ; not only 
when we came to Constantinople, but also when we left 
the place. There came a sense of relief when cleared 
and away from Turkish rule. 

Our way through the Bosporus and Black Sea to 
Constanza, the Roumanian seaport, a matter of eight- 
een hours, was made most comfortably on the " Rou- 
manian ' a fine new ship fitted with wireless telegraphy, 
electric fans and every convenience. We were fortu- 
nate also in meeting the American minister to Rou- 
mania aboard, and in having him to dinner. The way 
was made clearer and the points of interest en route 
more interesting to us with his help. A perfect spring 
day for the voyage and every minute of it enjoyed. 

We could not stay long in Roumania. One day only 
at Bucharest, the capital, had to satisfy. It is a well- 
planned modern city of about three hundred thousand, 
much spread out, and very heavily fortified — but with- 
out any important monuments. All the best hotels were 
full on account of a week's jubilee, just beginning, com- 
memorative of King Charles' forty years reign. The ac- 
commodations obtainable were so unsatisfactory that 
we decided to move on. A drive through the city out 
to the people's pleasure grounds and also to the race- 

J 47 



148 Around the World in a Year 

track, was on the programme. At the first we saw 
crowds of the country folk in their fanciest peasant 
costumes — many of them works of art that made us 
envious. At the races the so-called better classes were 
seen, but they did not furnish so much action or color. 
It was they who appeared commonplace. 

In the afternoon while sitting in the park chatting 
with a native lady, we had the pleasure of seeing 
Carmen Sylva, the beautiful and highly-accomplished 
Queen of Roumania who lives so in the hearts of her 
people. She was on her way to the Opera House, 
where there was to be a gala performance. She is 
poet, musician, artist, and philanthropist ; and has not 
only elaborately decorated the Evangelical church at 
Bucharest with her own hands, but her cleverness and 
saintly character have (this case calls for some soaring) 
ornamented her sex and decorated her time. That she 
is Queen by divine right no one in Roumania will 
question. 

In the early evening we were ready to continue our 
journeying, and would have done so if it had not been 
for the trickery of the head porter at the station, who 
told us our luggage had not followed from Constanza. 
We were made sure later by a dozen indications that it 
had — our trunks, which in fact arrived by the train 
ahead of us, being kept out of sight in order that he 
might make a play at sending telegrams and procur- 
ing a special late-at-night customs examination with a 
phantom carriage to the inspector and much obligation 
all around. At first we were anxious, and finally in- 
censed. But with the trunks out of sight somewhere 
and ourselves entirely in the hands of the grafter, 
there was nothing for us to do but agree; wait while 



Constantinople to Constanza and Orsova 149 

the play proceeded, and then go down into our clothes 
and pay up. We were allowed to regain our property 
about midnight, and were off by the last train. We 
were not the only victims, for a French lady and her 
goods were treated in precisely the same fashion, and 
they had to listen to some incisive comments from her. 
She lost her temper as well. The delay caused us to 
be a day late at Orsova, and to be compelled to wait 
at that little Hungarian town two days for the next 
boat up the Danube. 

Our acquaintance with Eoumania was not much 
more than a car-window acquaintance, but we went the 
whole length of the country by daylight, and kept it in 
sight all the way. Eoumania, we read, has a language 
and literature of its own, and its people are said to be 
descendants of a Roman colony. Hence the name. 
They are evidently a Latin race, not at all Oriental, 
though very dark. The men dress like Russians, which 
many very likely are, especially among those living near 
the Black Sea. Great wheat fields stretched away for 
miles to the horizon, and there are magnificent mead- 
ows with many great herds of horses and cattle. My 
people, who had looked askance at the milk and the 
fresh butter of Egypt and Greece, where cows are so 
few and goats so numerous, could now enjoy a glass 
of milk and feel pretty sure of what they were getting. 
Roumania's soil is evidently very rich, and, so far as 
we saw, either grass, grain or wood is there every- 
where with scarcely an acre that is not yielding. The 
chief exports are grain and wood — a pastoral country, 
which we are taught in some schools of economics 
makes for poverty. The country people did seem to us 
very sad-eyed and poor. Many live in queer turf- 



150 Around the World in a Year 

topped hovels half buried in the landscape, the floors 
several feet below the surface; and about as many 
women as men are seen in the fields swinging the heavy 
mattocks and breaking the heavy sod. The country 
traversed by the railroad, except for the last fifty miles, 
is almost absolutely flat— more nearly so than any I 
ever saw, — and the absence of fences and the immense 
stretches of wheat and pasture are reasons for the 
many archaic-looking herdsmen; and indicated, as we 
thought, that the land is held by the few. 

Roumania has recently been found to be rich in oil, 
and bids fair to become one of the richest oil-fields in 
the world. The wells and refineries belong to the gov- 
ernment, which is building a pipe-line from the Car- 
pathians to Constanza on the Black Sea. The industry 
is as yet in its infancy. The Standard Oil Company 
has been trying to buy the land and pipe-line from the 
government, and one of its magnates, stopping at the 
same hotel in Bucharest where we went, had been en- 
gaged in the effort for several months. The question 
whether the country shall grant a monopoly to the 
Standard, or not, has got into politics and been the 
cause of fierce party warfare, for — somehow or other — 
a quasi-political party has been formed whose shib- 
boleth may be said to be " Let the Standard In. ' ' How 
very strange ! Up to the present writing the company's 
negotiations have failed and the matter would seem 
to be dropped, but those who know the Standard Oil 
Company have no doubt it is still at it. I learned most 
of these facts from a high Roumanian official, whose 
good company we enjoyed for several days, later in our 
travels. As the matter seems to have resolved itself 
into a trial of strength between the Roiunanian gov- 



Constantinople to Constanza and Orsova 1 5 1 

eminent and the Standard Oil Company, the Rou- 
manian government might better watch out. 

At the little town of Orsova on the Danube — in the 
corner formed by Servia, Roumania and Hungary — 
we rested for two days waiting for the boat which 
took us to Belgrade and Budapest. It is a place where 
English, and even French, is seldom heard. We de- 
pended principally on sign language and had trouble 
enough — often retreating in confusion. All the way 
from Constantinople to Budapest this dearth of Eng- 
lish was constantly exhibited. The notices to passen- 
gers on ship, river and rail, and other public notices, 
were repeated in three or four or even five languages, 
but none that we saw were either in English or 
French. Since leaving Athens we have been off the 
tourists' beaten track. There are few places where 
English is so seldom heard as in the Levant and the 
Balkans. 



ON THE DANUBE 

The "Beautiful Blue Danube" is all very well in 
song and waltz, and the Black Sea has probably been 
the scene of many dark deeds, but as studies in color 
both have been misnamed. When we were on them the 
Danube was turgid as the Nile, and the Black Sea was 
blue enough to pass unnoticed. 

We spent three happy days in our little steamboat 
on the Danube, making the passage from Orsova to 
Budapest and stopping at Belgrade, the capital of 
Servia. There is every variety of scenery, and the 
first seventy miles are wonderfully beautiful. It is 
there where are the famed Iron Gates, and you have 
our word for it they are a sight to see. The Danube 
narrows and its course simply marks the passes be- 
tween high and very steep mountains, somewhat like 
the Hudson at West Point, only in every way empha- 
sized, and much more of it. The turns in the Danube 
there are so many and sudden we kept wondering 
the way out ; our tiny steamboat most of the time being 
as if in some little lake with the sheer and steeps on 
every hand — a reminder also of the Lake of the Three 
Cantons. To complete the picture in every way there 
came up two of their celebrated thunderstorms in suc- 
cession, both particularly violent, but soon over. It 
did our souls good to listen to the reverberation among 
those mountains, sounding at times like whisperings of 
the gods and at others like the crack of doom. By 

152 



On the Danube 153 



all means speak for a thunderstorm when passing the 
Iron Gates. 

Nature has been lavish there, but she does not supply 
all the interesting sights seen on the Danube. We 
watched the many curious little grist-mills floating in 
mid-river, their undershot wheels turning with the cur- 
rent, and considered how cheap and sure is their power 
supply, and what oceans of it go to waste where tides 
rise or currents flow — with steam coal at four dollars 
the ton. We saw the mouths of a few coal-mines, and 
listened the while to a fellow-passenger, a promoter, 
tell of enormous mineral fields yet undeveloped in 
this part of the world. We saw also the old Roman 
military road which was finished by the Huns and is 
still in good condition, much of it cut through solid 
rock — parts of it hanging to the steeps in almost im- 
possible fashion, — as also the picturesque ruins of sev- 
eral great Roman towers and citadels. 

We had Servia on the left bank and Hungary on the 
right all the way to Belgrade, for the Danube divides 
those countries. Much of the territory we traversed is 
very thinly populated, wild and heavily wooded. I 
heard of the many bears and wolves in those thickets 
and dark ravines, and that much damage is done by 
them, and that every year numbers of herdsmen and 
others lose their lives to them, especially during hard 
winters. We were much pleased with our three days 
on the Danube. The captain and officers became our 
pupils in elementary English, and at least one acquaint- 
ance made will, we hope, be lasting. 



BUDAPEST 

We left the staunch little steamboat between the 
bridges at Budapest, and, even at the landing-stage, re- 
alized that we had arrived at a singularly beautiful 
city ; for there were the ancient citadel and magnificent 
royal palace on the heights of Buda, on the one side, 
and the great Parliament House — so much like that in 
London — and a broad esplanade backed by fine hotels, 
on the other. We tried to recall everything we ever 
knew or read about Hungary from gypsies to goulash, 
and found it was very little; so, with the zest coining 
from the three days of complete rest on the boat, we 
set about looking up Budapest, its capital city. 

There is no greater contrast among the capitals of 
Europe than that between Budapest and Constantino- 
ple ; and to come to Budapest so soon after leaving Con- 
stantinople heightened that contrast for us. The one 
is as clean as the other is dirty. A drive of several 
hours convinced us here was the most beautiful city 
we had ever seen, and our stay for a week only 
strengthened the opinion. Budapest is essentially a 
modern city, and all the public buildings and many 
of the private buildings are rich in architecture and 
decoration. If there is any criticism any one could 
make (we do not), it is that decoration is laid on too 
thickly and architecture has run wild. But all will 
agree that the decoration and architecture employed 
are generally superb examples. 

The ancient citadel, high on the hill at Buda, easily 

154 



Budapest 



*55 




Royal Palace on the Danube, Budapest. 



commands the city, and its rapture by the Austrians, 
in 1848, led at once to the capitulation of the city; and, 
eventually, to the subjugation of all Hungary. v With 
the exception of it and a few minor antiquities, the city 
is distinctly new. Many of the streets are broad, and 
some magnificently so. The royal castle is its shining- 
glory. It is beautiful in the extreme, and, like that at 
Edinburgh, rests on a height and sheds its beauty upon 
the whole city. It is an immense pile, said to have 
nearly nine hundred rooms and to have cost ten mil- 
lion dollars. They probably have their money's worth, 
for it reflects dignity and character on their city; and 
common honesty in office seems to be the rule in 
Europe, outside of Russia. The State House at 
Albany, where I once served a term as a legislator, 
was built by politicians and, though neither in beauty 
nor size is it at all comparable with the castle at Buda, 
its cost was two and a half times as much. The com- 



156 Around the World in a Year 

paratively insignificant County Court House, in New 
York City, built by the notorious Tweed, cost that city 
considerably more than did this great castle — and rate 
of wages does not account for the enormous disparity. 

The streets of Budapest are surprisingly clean, and 
Vienna in the same respect is entitled to almost equal 
credit. The secret, if I fathomed it, is good pavement 
and then plenty of water. Colonel Waring taught us 
a lot about street-cleaning, but there must be much else 
to learn of it, for New York City, even in his time, never 
could be compared with Budapest of to-day. Once 
every day the asphalt there is flushed and then scraped 
with rubber-shod "squeegees," just as show-windows 
are with us. And all during the day cleaners with birch 
brooms are on the alert. Those birch brooms of theirs 
do far better and quicker work than the big push- 
shovels used in America. Paper is not carelessly scat- 
tered about as with us — it must be against their law. 
Nothing litters like paper. In all the parks and the 
main streets of the Austrian and Hungarian cities 
visited by us, were imitation tree trunks about four 
feet high, of sheet iron and painted so as to be hardly 
distinguishable among the trees or bushes, which are 
receptacles for litter and continual reminders of order- 
liness. As a consequence of all this care, they rejoice 
in those remarkably clean streets. It is a matter of 
fact that in Budapest I twiddled a piece of paper the 
size of a car ticket for quite a while before disposing 
of it satisfactorily, and I am not credited with being 
particular. I heard some one say she could not eat 
cherries in Budapest without a conscientious qualm 
coming over her every time she threw away a pit. Go 
there, and say then if this be ridiculous. 



Budapest 157 

I do not like to use superlatives, but how else is Mar- 
gareten Island to be mentioned at allf It is in the 
Danube, between Buda and Pesth, of size, shape and 
situation very like Blackwell's Island in the East River, 
at New York. But oh ! how lovely it is. New Yorkers 
know Glen Island, and it is said comparisons are gen- 
erally out of order, but I am sure that those who have 
seen both will not differ with me when I say that Mar- 
gareten Island in the Danube is beautiful beyond 
compare. Its soft stretches of finished landscape, as 
good as the best in England; its vistas of great forest 
trees; its natural beauty of outline and diversity of 
view; the two bands of music; the flowers and birds; 
the famous sulphur spring flowing over the precipice; 
and then on both sides the swift Danube with its steep 
green slopes, furnish just the right setting. These 
things in conjunction give beauty and interest in plenty 
to the view, wherever you turn. To be there almost 
alone in early morning in spring is to be in a garden 
of dainty delight — a garden of Eden. I know that here 
I shall be charged with lack of moderation in state- 
ment, which I prize, but not by those who have been 
to Margareten Island. It is the private property of 
a Prince, and has been developed and is maintained 
by him at great cost. He has turned it over, as it were, 
to the people of Budapest, who can visit it for a shil- 
ling. It is the result of individual ownership, means 
unlimited, a wish to surpass and superb taste. I wish 
all the people of New York could see it. How quickly 
would they raze those prisons and pest-houses of 
Blackwell's Island and follow suit. 

The population of Hungary is over twenty millions. 
The relations between it and Austria are very strained. 



158 Around the World in a Year 

A few months ago they appeared to be nearing the 
breaking point; and, while good old Emperor-King 
Francis Joseph by his concessions and popularity has 
avoided the worst, there did not seem much doubt in the 
minds of those I heard express themselves there that 
the evil day is only postponed, not averted. The 
Magyars — true descendants of the Huns — are a fiery, 
sturdy race, distinct in language, art, music, and lit- 
erature as they are in origin ; and there are ten millions 
of them there. The fortunes of 1849 yoked them with 
Austria. Francis Joseph compels their respect, and 
many are the special privileges they enjoy — but the 
Magyars yearn for complete independence. I have an 
idea that about all Austria gets from the Triple Al- 
liance is the strong moral support it gives to the Hun- 
garian status quo. In other words, Hungary cannot 
expect to force complete independence while facing 
Austria's armaments and Germany's and Italy's 
frowns — or worse — as well. The European equilib- 
rium is the bundle of eels which every Power fears to 
disturb, excepting only when it feels strong enough 
to do so for itself. But we may remember the carv- 
ing of the map which followed the Russo-Turkish War, 
and history does sometimes repeat itself. The present 
Hungarian ministry is a coalition ministry, in itself a 
pregnant fact, for the Independent party has never 
before been recognized by the King in the formation 
of ministries. He has found that the business of the 
country cannot be carried on without its co-operation. 
While we were in Budapest there was hot contention 
between the two countries over tariffs, and also about 
the question whether the German or Hungarian lan- 
guage be employed for words of command in the Hun- 



Budapest 



'59 



garian regiments. Another burning question, and one 
other of Hungary's grievances, is that the King so very 
seldom resides among them. When we were there he 
had not occupied the great castle at Budapest, — or 
been in that city at all, — but once in the previous eight- 
een months, and then for three days only, when he 
was there to open the Hungarian Parliament, the week 
before we arrived. The impression was given me he 
was afraid of venturing while politics were so acute. 
What if he should be detained there pending results 
of an uprising? The Hungarians object to being- 
ruled at all from a distance or treated longer as a 
conquered province. It is an unhappy situation. 

When we were there the King had just left Buda- 
pest with the Austrian Premier after opening the Hun- 
garian parliament (as was said), and on the heels of 
several highly-important conferences with Doctor 




Parliament House, Budapest. 



160 Around the World in a Year 

Weckerle, the Hungarian Premier. They were, it 
seems, unable to reach an accommodation ; clashed, and 
the Austrian Premier had resigned. On the day fol- 
lowing this crisis, from the diplomatic gallery in the 
Parliament House and with highly-competent company 
at our elbows, we listened to a speech by Doctor 
Weckerle — his statement of the situation and the min- 
istry's attitude. It was delivered before a full house, 
about every deputy being in his seat, and with galleries 
packed. Many fine ladies were present. He sounded 
and acted as if making a great speech, and the intense 
interest and frequent cheers went to prove it. He is an 
orator. An official, in whose company we were, told 
me it was in purest and loftiest Hungarian; but it 
might just as well have been in purest Choctaw — so 
little were our understandings pierced. The statement 
seemed to be eminently satisfactory to most of his 
hearers; but I noticed that Kossuth — son of the Agi- 
tator and leader of the Independence party — remained 
passive. Although in the ministry himself, it was ex- 
pected he would answer the Premier the next day and 
declare for a more radical programme. Count Apponji, 
another Independent in the ministry and accounted 
Hungary's greatest statesman and orator, the most 
popular man in public life there, was taking notes, and 
was also expected to be heard in reply. This open 
discordance in the ministry, alone, showed how very 
acute was the situation. The internal political troubles 
of the dual monarchy are certainly waxing warm. Two 
weeks later, at a monster mass-meeting before the City 
Hall in Vienna, where at least twenty thousand were 
gathered, I saw that same Kossuth hung in effigy with 
many approving cheers. The meeting was called to 



Budapest 1 6 1 

protest against Hungary's stand and against further 
concessions. Is it to be another "irrepressible con- 
flict"! We were very much pleased to see and hear 
the Premier on that interesting occasion. But does 
not oratory get much more than its due? I am willing 
to wager that it was his powers in that department, 
coupled with some sterling qualities, that made him 
Premier. I am almost ready to accept a friend's esti- 
mation of eloquence. He was a hard-headed scientist. 
Being asked if he had heard Talmage, he replied he 
had not; that as a matter of self-defence he never 
went to hear men noted for their eloquence, because, 
it seemed to him, their effort was to take an unfair 
advantage of him. He had some foundation for his 
attitude. Every lawyer knows that eloquence, even in 
the statement of facts, often perplexes courts and very 
often sways juries. If eloquence were possible only in 
a good cause it would be an art divine; but it lends it- 
self to any cause and is, therefore, as dangerous as it 
is rare. 



VIENNA 

We went from Budapest to Vienna, and stopped 
there nearly a month. It is not the present purpose 
to try the reader's patience with lengthy descriptions 
of a place so well known. But do not get restless or 
hurry the expedition. We will get to India and on 
the Pacific before very long. You know we are mark- 
ing time just here — waiting for the season when India 
can be crossed by white man. This European digres- 
sion was a matter of necessity with us, and the reader 
can take it as thrown in for good measure. He was 
promised a journey around the world, and not all over 
the world. 

I once heard a witty fellow, seeing the words tempus 
fugit painted across the face of a church clock, ex- 
press his entire satisfaction thereat, saying, "Let her 
fuge." I don't say so. The flight of years is to me 
a chastening and rather melancholy procession. 

Some happenings in and impressions of Vienna, and 
a few general statements, may be acceptable. 

Vienna is the seventh largest city of the world, and 
another very beautiful one — an imperial city of one 
million eight hundred thousand. The dominant tone is 
that of completion. Things seem to be done, and the 
feeling comes over you that they have been well done. 
Neighborhoods are settled and harmonious, and there 
are hardly any public works under way. A sort of 
municipal repose. So much is broad, clean, quiet, and 
magnificent. The razing of the fortifications, which 

163 



Vienna 163 

were all around the old city, — done about fifty years 
ago, — gave to Vienna a splendid opportunity, which it 
seized. It furnished space just where it was wanted; 
and a broad road or parkway called the Ringstrasse, 
as fine as anything of the kind, has been built there ; and 
the Opera House, Royal Theatre, Parliament House, 
City Hall, Palace of Justice, University, Museums and 
other great new buildings have been massed there. Be- 
fore those fortifications were demolished, I can suppose 
Vienna was uninteresting as a spectacle, but now it 
compares with Paris, and I think surpasses it. We 
liked the Viennese as a people. All agreed that they 
were the best-looking, happiest-seeming people we knew 
of, and there is much elegance of dress and manner 
among them. 

We saw Emperor Francis Joseph several times. He 
is about the highest-priced and best-housed monarch 
in the world, and his popularity with his people is 
firmly established. He is credited with unusual politi- 
cal sagacity, and the value of his personal and patri- 
archal influence with the leaders of the warring fac- 
tions of Austria and Hungary cannot be overestimated. 
My people saw the Emperor when he rode with Kaiser 
William, of Germany, into the palace ground at Schon- 
brunn on the latter 's visit there at the time of the now 
famous "Triple Alliance Telegrams" exchanged with 
the King of Italy. They were surprised at the entire 
absence of cheers from the two hundred and fifty 
there assembled. It was at Schonbrunn where Napo- 
leon spent much time and where his son, the King of 
Rome and Duke of Reich stadt, died. We thought the 
trimming and training of the forest trees in the park 
there, to accommodate and set off the statuary and to 



164 Around the World in a Year 

form walks, angles and archways, was a curious and 
interesting study in arboriculture. 

The annual review of the Vienna garrison is always 
an imposing spectacle. We received cards to the 
enclosure, and saw the Emperor ride down the long 
lines, as he probably had many times before. He rode 
alone, the cynosure of all eyes, far in advance of the 
most brilliant body-guard and escort of foreign mili- 
tary attaches imaginable — who clanked along at a most 
respectful distance behind. It does seem to me that 
everything possible is done in these monarchial coun- 
tries to set off the sovereign. In the feudal days, and 
in the long ago, with such human cyclones as Darius, 
Alexander, Caesar, Charlemagne, or, later, with Napo- 
leon, there was unreasoning ground for it. But with 
these immensely paid sons of kingly sires born to the 
purple — whether or no— it is, to a serious mind, too 
forced and artificial to pass unnoticed. It is overdone. 
A monarch must now prove himself like any other 
mortal, and it can be said that some of them in actual 
services rendered do size up to their exalted station. 
The Austrian Emperor has earned a most enviable 
reputation, but so did Peter Cooper and George Pea- 
body, and so also has Thomas Edison. The Emperor is 
not known to be a great general, and for him, dressed 
as a field-marshal, to ride down a long line of drilled 
and accomplished soldiers in such magnificent isolation, 
as if their creator, is hollow and well-nigh ridiculous. 

The monarchial system would make of the accidental 
sovereign a kind of demigod upon such occasions— 
probably very thrilling to tuft-hunters and children. 

That body-guard and those foreign military attaches 
were the showiest ever brought together. Every civ- 



Vienna 165 

ilized nation was represented, and for variety and 
costliness of attire they were the limit. Their color, 
lace and gorgeous millinery made your eyes swim — 
as was intended. If any body of women were ever as 
gorgeously clothed upon as they, I never saw them. 
Let nothing more be said about women as the vainer 
or weaker sex — clothes, more clothes, Sartor Resartus. 

In Vienna we were indebted to the American Am- 
bassador for courtesies very graciously extended. Of 
course the Volksgarten band concerts claimed us. 
We were at the Opera House twice— that is to say, an 
evening of ballet, said to be the best in Europe, and 
listened again to "Carmen." The young lady who 
played the title-role had had, I figured, at least half a 
bottle too many; but perhaps the continental "Car- 
men" requires more. Her performance was certainly 
more spirited than spiritual; and her costume, to be 
quite polite, was also highly emotional. 

I attended two monster mass-meetings in front of 
the City Hall. At one they hung Kossuth in effigy 
(as was said), and then, fired by the vehemence of the 
speakers, went a distance and smashed the windows 
of a building where a high Hungarian delegation to 
the Austrian ministry was in session. The other was 
a meeting of Socialists demanding freer suffrage. 
They carried red flags without any police interference. 
It will be seen there is political unrest in Austria. 

It is an old saying that "a shoemaker always goes 
back to his last." So is it natural for a lawyer, no mat- 
ter where he is, to haunt the court-houses. I witnessed 
a trial in the Palace of Justice, at Vienna, and was im- 
pressed with the evident learning and ability of the 
court. Their judges wear caps as well as gowns, a sort 



1 66 Around the World in a Year 

of skull-cap. I liked it better than the cumbrous Eng- 
lish wig, but, according to my idea, dignity is not en- 
hanced by either, and the "dome of thought," whether 
bald or well thatched, might better be left exposed. 
Lawyers in Austria are called doctors in familiar con- 
versation, and are so addressed formally or informally. 

We were dazzled by a sight of the Austrian crown 
jewels at the treasury of the palace. The diamonds and 
other precious stones there make up a great display of 
concentrated wealth. The gorgeous imperial regalia 
was there also. I was surprised, though, how few are 
the relics of Charlemagne. In fact, there is hardly any 
about which there is not doubt. With the crown jewels, 
but in a separate case, are shown — so say the labels — 
a nail from the Cross and also a piece of the Cross. 
Not only credulity receives a severe strain, but the 
sense of propriety also. It seemed rank sacrilege that 
such things, if genuine, should be shown with crown 
jewels and other offerings to vanity as part of a private 
collection. If genuine, they could well become the cen- 
tral motive around which should be raised the greatest 
temple of the Christian world. But they are not au- 
thenticated, and their value, if they ever had any, is 
utterly destroyed, the impropriety alone remaining. A 
tooth alleged to have come from out the jaw of John the 
Baptist is also there. It is mentioned here without 
comment. Not even ' ' Suppose it did 1 ' ' shall be asked. 

I was in Vienna during the Corpus Christi festival, a 
day made very much of there. At early seven o 'clock 
the Emperor and royal family were expected to walk 
from the palace to St. Stephen's, where religious cere- 
monies peculiar to the day were to be held ; and a pro- 
cession of prelates and soldiery was to accompany 



Vienna 167 

them on their way back. In some respects it corre- 
sponds with the annual Ramazan procession at Con- 
stantinople, when the Sultan goes in state to say his 
prayers at St. Sophia, or some other Stambul mosque, 
except that the Sultan drives there. Royalty on horse- 
back or drawn by six horses is the thing, but royalty 
afoot is an unusual sight — is so human — and of course 
Corpus Christi in Vienna always draws a big crowd. 
In company with a German friend I was out early, and 
might have been seen craning my neck trying to look 
through or over the many who had come even earlier, 
watching for the imperial exit at the palace gates. 
The whole route was packed with people held back 
by regiments of soldiers; the windows were full, as 
were also the stands erected for the purpose. All were 
intent upon seeing the Emperor, afoot. That, so far 
as I heard, was the central thought, and I certainly 
would not intentionally belittle the religious signifi- 
cance of the day. As a show it proved a complete 
failure. There was no procession and the Emperor 
did not go afoot; but, instead, drove rapidly to the 
church and about an hour afterwards back again, both 
times in a solid-front close carriage. Before the wait- 
ing crowd knew it he had flashed by, and, as he was so 
hidden in the recesses and shadow, they could do little 
more than guess who it was. It was a great disappoint- 
ment to the many who had stood for hours packed like 
sardines, struggling to keep their places ; and numerous 
murmurs were heard. It seems the Emperor called the 
procession off at four o'clock that morning, as, at that 
hour, rain threatened. But the fact is, it did not rain 
a drop until after the return to the palace. It may 
have been good judgment to call the procession off, but 



1 68 Around the World in a Year 

what about the hurrying by in the solid-front close car- 
riage? What a way to treat loyal subjects crowding to 
see their sovereign ! Why, at the very least, was not an 
open carriage chosen? In some quarters there is such 
a thing as Use majeste, but this looked to me much 
like Use populace. 



CARLSBAD 

After Vienna it was Carlsbad, which is an exceed- 
ingly interesting place. A charming little German 
town nestling in a deep ravine in the mountains of 
Bohemia about mineral springs to which sixty thou- 
sand people annually resort. Most of them are ill, in 
need of repairs, and look to the waters for relief; and 
from all accounts frequently find it. They say when a 
family physician anywhere in Europe finds his patient 
with kidney or liver trouble getting out of hand, that is 
to say, dissatisfied with the results of his medical treat- 
ment, he sends him to one of the watering-places, usu- 
ally Carlsbad, if he (the patient, of course) has the 
price. It is the most famous health resort in the world. 
Water, heat and fresh air are Nature's simple reme- 
dies. 

The average tourist or quick-tripper does not make 
Carlsbad. It is not a capital equipped with a royal 
family always astir; and the kind of monuments and 
shows he looks for are not found there. But we had 
the time to spare, and no place in early summer is 
lovelier than Carlsbad, nor is there anywhere a better 
field for the study of human nature. To sit in one 
of its beautiful spring-houses and watch the crowd is 
a privilege. I was struck with the number of fat people 
to be seen there. At least three-fourths were easily 
overweight, many were very fat and some were wad- 
dling triple-chinners who looked like the barrels they 

169 



170 Around the World in a Year 

had drained. Really, Carlsbad is headquarters for the 
flabby. They have graduated from the beer halls of 
Munich and table d'hotes of the "grand" hotels. And 
the beefsteak clubs did them no good. At what terri- 
ble disadvantage they would be on a crowded beach in 
bathing-suits and a high wind. JPerish the thought! 
There was also a good sprinkling of the less bulky 
brotherhood with blotched faces and noses, telling how 
steeped in alcohol were they; regular two-bottle-men, 
rubicund old rounders. The triple-chinners and the 
rounders— poor fellows — had had their good times and 
now, as sinners doing penance, they were meekly tak- 
ing the cure — a six weeks' job — including the "Carls- 
bad diet" (which is pretty short commons) and their 
physicians' advice as to the particular spring, num- 
ber of baths and glasses, and "when." Weighing, 
measuring and testing themselves will occupy them 
meanwhile, as matter of course. Yes, thin people were 
there also. Stiff with gout and the other such ailments 
which do not run to waist measure ; but the sylphs in 
Carlsbad are in a hopeless minority. I dare say, many 
bon vivants are among them and that many of them are 
well worth saving. 

At the hotel I found myself rooming between a lady 
who "in the stilly night" (but not "oft") broke into 
sighs and groans as if in much pain of body or mind. 
Her room was on one side of me. On the other was 
quartered a big party, weighing close to three hundred, 
who talked to himself. I thought this more of Carls- 
bad's high society than my ticket called for, so I 
changed my room. 

While strolling about among the heavy-weights at 
Carlsbad I once caught myself thinking — thinking on 



Carlsbad 171 

whether or not obesity was catching. My conclusions, 
such as they were, need not be stated, for the doctors 
would not all agree with them anyway ; and they might 
serve only to still further divide them. Seriously, 
though, would you in these germ-hunting days be 
floored with surprise should you read that that very 
question had been discussed by some medical society 
and answered most sensationally? Even at the pres- 
ent stage of accepted theories upon kindred topics, 
can any one be absolutely sure that obesity is not 
catching? 

I thought Carlsbad, in many respects, about the most 
thoroughly comfortable place I ever visited. The whole 
tone and layout makes for comfort. You are as in a 
hammock swayed by summer breezes, without even 
the trouble of swinging. The climate was perfect, as 
were the well-shaded roads. The walks, too, a feature 
of the place, are delicious. Mile on mile of well-kept 
paths lead by purling stream through cool forest glades 
or to eminences where are fine views ; with seats invit- 
ing to rest just where wanted and often in unexpected 
places. It is said you can walk for days on these paths 
without crossing your track, which I quite believe. 
The hills about Carlsbad, like the springs, are owned 
by the municipality, and much walking is prescribed to 
those who are able, as part of the cure. The parks, 
cafes and band concerts are among the very best, with 
never a tram-car. If there is suffering there it has 
been brought. The spirit of peace hovers close over 
the place. No one can be there long without feeling a 
lulling dolce far niente stealing over him, and I have 
the idea 'tis to this peacefulness, which takes posses- 
sion more or less of the mind of the visitor to Carlsbad, 



172 Around the World in a Year 

that it owes much of its healing qualities. I enjoyed 
the walks exceedingly. When far enough away, sit- 
ting in those woodlands listening to the rustle of leaves 
and to the songbirds — it was solitude peculiarly de- 
lightful. 

It is an expensive place. Others may be there for 
their health, but the hotel proprietors of Carlsbad are 
not. Lovely as it is in itself, Carlsbad, for the well and 
strong, has drawbacks which its particular use brings 
in its train. To meet sick people at every turn — so 
many who look to have suddenly shrunk away from the 
collars and clothes they wear, and so many others 
whose clothes seem to be bursting — to have to notice 
the many sad eyes and unhealthy complexions, and to 
have a perfect right to suppose that the very bed given 
you to sleep upon has been a bed of suffering to many 
of your predecessors — these are things which are not 
inspiriting. 

The scenes about the springs in the early morning, 
from five to seven o'clock, when the band concerts are 
on and nearly every one you meet is out for the cure — 
the well and strong being yet abed, — reminds me, not- 
withstanding the fine music, of the garden of that 
largest hospital in the world which I visited at Vienna, 
where hundreds of convalescents were taking the air. 
It is Carlsbad's busy time. I doubt whether so many 
sick people are congregated anywhere else. Perhaps 
twenty-five hundred are carrying glasses, all of them 
out for the precious waters ; and I am compelled to say 
they make up poorly and are a very unhandsome crowd. 
I counted one morning over three hundred and fifty 
in solid double lines, glasses in hand, and all following 
slowly in a sort of lock-step to the Miilbrunn spring, 



Carlsbad 173 

where nine dipper girls were getting backache filling 
and passing. Hundreds of others had been served, 
and were sipping while sitting or standing around 
the same spring. And there are fourteen springs in 
operation; at least one other — the Sprudel — quite as 
well patronized. Sic est vita; at least, such is life at 
Carlsbad. 

Curiosity, a first cousin to ambition and like it the 
moving cause for a deal of crime, led me to try a 
Carlsbad mud-bath. In my simplicity I reasoned that 
what cures sick people will not kill well ones. So, with- 
out the usual doctor's prescription, but possessed 
simply with a wish to find out, I stepped into that tub 
half-full of hot black mud, and — submerged to the chin — 
floated free in it for twenty minutes. While thus 
stuck in the mud, as it were, I imagined things; won- 
dered on how many other fellows that same mud had 
done duty; imagined it had been scooped from some 
old marsh, and became alert for stray eels and leeches 
in hiding. I did not know Carlsbad mud was sifted 
and certified and never used but the once; that it is 
made of a particular soil, said to be impregnated with 
healing qualities ; dug at a place four miles away which 
is owned by the municipality, and mixed at the bath 
with water piped from the famous Sprudel, and, fur- 
ther, that everything connected with the waters and 
the cure is under jealous guard of the city. I ought to 
have learned of these things before. It would have 
allayed fears that disturbed the calm which should 
accompany the bath. However, after floating the re- 
quired time in the hot oozy stuff- — which had the con- 
sistency of jam and was nearly as sticky, — an attendant 
helped me to emerge and poured water till what re- 



174 Around the World in a Year 

mained reappeared — a renaissance, I hoped. It had 
been a sweat bath, I knew. What else a mud bath does 
to you is too many for me; but so much decomposed 
vegetable and other matter at work at every pore 
opened with the heat, must, I should think, do a whole 
lot of things — draw like unto a poultice perhaps. If you 
must know, try to find out by asking the doctors — but, 
come to think of it, don 't ask more than one, for it might 
lead to confusion. If a little additional persiflage will 
not be resented, I will venture to suggest that if it be 
true, as is alleged, that ' ' like cures like, ' ' then you must 
agree, after a moment's thought, that whether you 
should take a mud-bath or not becomes a moral ques- 
tion. And surely no one nursing a good reputation, 
and yet thinking of running for office in America, ought 
to fail to take one in advance. 

The number of visitors to Carlsbad has increased 
every year for many years, and now is greater than 
ever. The amount of the water dished up at the 
springs and drank down on the spot, keeps about a 
hundred girls hard at work; and the amount bottled 
and sent away all over the world mounts into those in- 
explicable millions. I watched the bottling business 
with interest, from the filling at the springs to the 
strapping of the cases at the warehouse. Carlsbad is 
evidently prospering. To my mind there are but two 
things threatening its future. One is the possible 
petering out of the springs themselves. Of course 
there is an end to all things, and that there is an end 
to such things has been shown in the Pennsylvania oil- 
fields — and the fact that these springs are yielding 
as much as ever proves nothing. The Carlsbad authori- 
ties for many years have been very tender upon this 




The Sprudel Hot Spring, Carlsbad. 



Carlsbad I jj 

jjoint, and many and rigid are the regulations about 
digging in the district. The rich coal deposits known to 
be near cannot be worked, nor is any mining operation 
allowed — the aim being to restrict the springs to the 
present number and keep them going forever. An old 
resident told me that anywhere within a certain large 
territory hot water can be found by puncturing the sur- 
face three feet. The Sprudel, its principal spring, 
throws a stream as big around as your arm thirteen 
feet, with temperature of one hundred and sixty-seven 
degrees. Do not these things point to a warm place not 
far away! What a ready-made text it furnishes the 
Calvinistic pulpits in the back counties. But this is 
a digression, and by some may be thought trifling, so 
let us pass at once to the second danger. What ho! 
Without there! Suppose Christian Science, which is 
making such wonderful strides with its theories of the 
unreality of disease and miracle-working thought, 
should become universally accepted. Would the min- 
eral springs of Carlsbad be of any value then except as 
mementoes? Perhaps I have not accurately stated the 
Christian Science theory, for I am aware that there 
are many things which cannot be explained in a line, 
and a partial statement is sometimes as bad as a mis- 
statement. That the swelling of the ranks of Chris- 
tian Science with its promises for the purifying and 
healing of the people without medicine or mineral 
water is, indeed, like the possible petering out, a 
menace to Carlsbad's business, will not be denied. But 
the living present is very good to the place. 

At home we hear about what is called "Continental 
politeness," and no one can tour Europe without 
realizing in some measure its meaning. It holds good 



178 Around the World in a Year 

in all classes. The gentleman kisses the lady's hand, 
when offered, whether in her drawing-room or on the 
street. It is a mark of high respect, and I think a 
beautiful custom. The gentleman who comes to sit 
at the other end of the settee in a public park will first 
lift his hat to you. Not by any means as prelude to 
conversation, but in mitigation for an apparent intru- 
sion. As one other instance, and they could be multi- 
plied, I will refer to the tram-car conductors of central 
Europe, and more particularly to omnibus conductors 
here at Carlsbad. There are no trams here. He of 
Carlsbad always receives you into his 'bus with a 
"Guten Tag," and carefully sets you down with an 
"Adieu." It has the effect of making you look more 
kindly on the world and feel as if being entertained. 
To be sure, he is quite in readiness for and frequently 
gets a two-heller piece— equaling a third of a cent over 
the fare, — for which he touches his hat and makes you 
his heartfelt thanks. The fares on all trams and 'buses 
in Europe are graded to distance, averaging much less 
than with us, and the two-hellers are often productive, 
for, as I have found, the conductor looks for opportu- 
nity to help you on your way or to find it. There is 
such a thing as "Continental politeness," and it is 
not all veneer and selfishness either. 

I was not long enough in Carlsbad to make the cure, 
but while there did the best I could in that direction. 
I did not consult a doctor, being so constituted that if 
told anything serious was the matter it would have 
been a bad surprise. But I drank regularly from a 
number of the springs ; as an anchor to windward, or, 
as the lawyers express it, "for what it might be worth." 
As to the effect — well, I fancied there were fireworks 



Carlsbad 1 79 

in some and fidgets in others though tasting very much 
alike; at any rate, I left Carlsbad after a week's so- 
journ feeling quite well excepting for my old fiend 
insomnia, which followed even to this duly certified and 
very delightful health resort. 



THE SUMMER 

Our wanderings during the next three months while 
waiting for India to cool off, though very enjoyable to 
us, being principally in the two most highly-traveled 
countries in the world — dear old Switzerland and in 
England — I think it would be trying the temper of the 
reader overmuch did they receive more than mere 
passing mention. Suffice it to say that during the hot 
months the Austrian Tyrol and the Engardine, includ- 
ing St. Moritz and other delightful points there and 
in the Haute Alpine country, were visited. There was 
a week in bewildering London and a month at East- 
bourne on the English south-coast. If you have ever 
been to Eastbourne you will envy us such a long stay. 
There were also several delightful visits at English 
country houses and a run-in with a sure enough coun- 
try-house ghost — not a disordered imagination, but the 
real thing. Yes ! In the strictest confidence, and in a 
voice sunk to a whisper, I tell you this. Perhaps some 
of our readers could easily stand the details — but let 
that pass ; we had better stick to the plan. It would fur- 
nish matter — or rather spirit — enough for a perfectly 
thrilling ghost story from the pen of a Wilkie Collins, 
and may yet be of use to that Hyslop ghost-hunting 
society. You know rural England is the forcing house 
for ghosts, and their favorite haunt. 

In London, I regret to say, my party divided. Daugh- 
ter had been taken ill in Switzerland and it was con- 
cluded she was unfit to cross India and stand the stress 

i8q 



The Summer 1 8 1 



of more hard travel. As that conclusion necessarily 
involved her mother, I was left alone. They recruited 
health and improved their French conversation at 
Paris during the winter and then crossed to New York 
and awaited my arrival there. 

As those three months are to be left out of this narra- 
tive let us join forces again at Marseilles on the way 
to the East. But just a moment. Now that wife and 
daughter have deserted, I wish you would say how this 
record may proceed without unpleasant resort to the 
first person singular. Here is an idea. I was once 
in court while the great Roscoe Conkling was address- 
ing a jury. They sought to involve his client because 
some one had used the pronoun "we" in a promise. 
To limit its meaning, Conkling argued that it referred 
to the writer only; that it was therefore an unwar- 
ranted use of the word as but three classes of persons, 
he said, were entitled to use the word "we" in the 
singular sense: namely, sovereign rulers, newspaper 
editors, and a man and his tapeworm. If it were not for 
his great reputation for elegance of diction as well as 
for force of diction I would be doubtful of the propriety 
of this story. Under the circumstances I must ask 
for a slight extension of that Conkling rule so that 
hereafter I be allowed to assume the airs of an editor; 
or, being seldom without traveling companions, the 
plural may, if you please, be taken to refer to them 
and me. 



MARSEILLES TO BOMBAY 

We left the beautiful harbor of Marseilles on the 
steamship "Marmora" ticketed for Bombay; and the 
fifteen hundred miles which lie between Marseilles and 
Port Said, which was the first stop, were put to the rear 
after four days. Our course took us through the Straits 
of Corsica the first night and through the Straits of 
Messina on the second. Three hours before reaching 
the latter the little rocky isle of Stromboli was passed, 
with its peculiar exploding as well as erupting volcano. 
The night was dark and, approaching at a distance, it 
seemed like a great revolving coast light, for it flashes, 
booms and vanishes every twenty seconds with most 
remarkable regularity. In this it differs from Vesu- 
vius, which is a continuous performance. A considera- 
ble number of people live on Stromboli willing to take 
chances because vineyards there yield three crops 
every year, forced by the unusual heat of the soil. 

A day beyond there we were again skirting Crete, 
and then it was sky and water till Damietta came in 
view and Port Said was nigh. The ' ' Marmora, ' ' one of 
the P. & O.'s biggest, was crowded, for it was making 
the most favored outward voyage of the year. To 
reach India about the middle of October, as we did, is to 
miss the rains and the worst of the heat. Hence this 
flocking from "home" back to duty of so many of In- 
dia's civil, political and military administrators. The 
passenger list disclosed a Resident — who is practically 
the Governor of a native state — three judges of the 



Marseilles to Bombay 183 

High Court and a major-general; with colonels, majors 
and captains until we were ashamed of our own pri- 
vacy. To have said ' ' Colonel, have another ! ' ' out loud 
in any part of the ship would have been hazardous. 
There was also a big sprinkling of brides, titled folk 
and Parsee merchants aboard. It was an unusually in- 
teresting shipload. 

At Port Said we took to the Suez Canal, which short- 
ens the journey from London to the East by four thou- 
sand miles. It being my first appearance on the Suez 
Canal I took a hard and long look. It is nothing but a 
ditch through the desert. Perhaps the reader can 
stand just a few statistics. The channel is seventy-two 
feet wide and twenty-eight feet deep. It was com- 
menced in 1859, opened ten years later and, though 
only a soft sand affair, its cost mounted into over one 
hundred millions of dollars — and subsequent enlarge- 
ment has added twenty more. The canal tolls I took 
the liberty of thinking exorbitant. Ten francs for 
every passenger carried through seems reasonable 
enough, though it would amount to a heap against an 
emigrant-ship or a troop-ship ; but close to seven francs 
per ton on the vessel, in addition — whether loaded full 
or only a quarter full, or even empty — is where the 
grumbling is centred. The tonnage standard adopted 
by the company is the so-called "Danube ton," which 
is somewhere between the gross and net. Our big 
crowded ' ' Marmora ' ' paid the canal company over ten 
thousand dollars for the passage. The canal is a great 
success, since the gross earnings are twenty million* 
dollars a year. When Disraeli in 1875, for the British 
Government, snapped up the one hundred and seventy- 
six thousand six hundred and two shares held by the 



184 Around the World in a Year 

Khedive, he paid nearly twenty million dollars for 
them. They are intrinsically worth six times that to- 
day, as they pay twenty-six per cent., which to the 
British Government means nearly four millon dol- 
lars in yearly dividends. That sufficiently indicates 
their business value; but how about the indirect and 
political value which their control gives to England, 
with its immense outlying Eastern possessions and 
its twelve million tons of commercial marine — equaling 
that of the rest of the world? It cannot be estimated in 
figures. Disraeli's move not only strengthened might- 
ily his country's hold on India but went a long way 
towards making Egypt a British province as well. I 
am aware that that purchase lacks about twenty-five 
thousand shares of being a majority-holding, but no 
one doubts that the British Government has pooled 
that quantity of other stock for its use on all political 
questions. By compact — a Hague edict, I believe — all 
vessels, whether warships or commercial marine, 
may at all times freely pass through during either 
peace or war. No question can therefore arise with 
France — the creator of the company — over her du- 
ties as a neutral, should England while at war 
with some other Power send her warships through 
the canal. 

We crawled through the canal's eighty-four miles 
of way to Suez — sixty-four of them in the canal proper 
and twenty on the intervening lakes — in twenty-four 
hours. If our ten thousand tonner had cut loose and 
gone through at high speed she would have taken the 
banks with her and done incalculable injury. Except 
while in the lakes, vessels are not allowed a speed ex- 
ceeding six miles an hour, and they may pass each 



Marseilles to Bombay 185 

other only when one is tied up. The churning of the 
same water by two vessels is thus avoided. 

The Red Sea was tackled next. It is another misno- 
mer, for it is not red, nor is there anything red about 
it except the mountains which skirt its shores — Mount 
Sinai among them; — these, with a little help from the 
imagination, do look singed and fiery; and except also 
that it was red-hot there, which I understand is its all- 
year-round condition. It must sizzle in midsummer — 
lying between the two great deserts. What surprised 
me most was its size. When thinking of it before at 
all it was as a rather unimportant link in the new way 
to the East, and I was quite unprepared to find it a 
great sea two hundred miles wide and thirteen hun- 
dred long; claiming us more than three days and nights. 
Most of the time it was glassy and glistening like oil. 
The punkas were started and sleeping out on the open 
deck became the correct thing. The course on the Red 
Sea is almost due south and by the time we reached 
Aden at the far end we were but eight degrees from 
the line. 

Somewhere in this traverse of the Red Sea we must 
have crossed the track of the fleeing children of Israel, 
where the waters divided and they passed over dry- 
shod ; and faith in that Old Testament story was put to 
a new strain. One part of the story was distinctly 
strengthened, however, for it became to us highly prob- 
able that if Pharaoh's host, his horses and chariots, 
also tried for anything of the sort they, at least, were 
swallowed up to the last man-jack of them. What a pity 
the children did not raise an obelisk or something, 
properly inscribed, to mark the spot and memorialize 
their deliverance ; for, with the waters of this great Red 



1 86 Around the World in a Year 

Sea walled up on both sides of them — towering and 
divided for them, — it must have looked to them like a 
very tight squeak. Forgive any apparent irreverence. 
A year of travel breeds high spirits. 

A few hours before passing out of the Red Sea and 
anchoring at Aden we went close to the island of Perim, 
which is in the narrowest part of the Straits of Bab-el- 
Mandeb that connect the sea with the Indian Ocean. 
It is about a mile from the Arabian coast and nine 
from the opposite African shore, with a good harbor 
and a channel-way on both sides. A couple of modern 
cannon mounted there would easily command the 
straits. It is one more of the vantage points along 
trade routes held by England. The story of its ac- 
quisition was told me by one who had been stationed 
there, and it is not without interest. It seems it had 
been occupied by the old East India Company but was 
abandoned and uninhabited when retaken by strategy 
about 1860. A French cruiser put in to Aden secretly 
on her way to Perim to hoist the French tricolor. Her 
officers were entertained that evening at the English 
club. One of them, in his mellow after-dinner confi- 
dences, disclosed the object of the expedition. Enough. 
That night some English officers slipped out and took 
possession, and when the Frenchmen came along they 
found the "meteor flag" already installed. I leave my 
readers to solve any question of ethics which may or 
may not be involved in this story, for it is probably con- 
troversial. The island is under the jurisdiction of the 
Indian Government, which furnishes the small garrison 
of Sepoys. For the present it is little more than a coal- 
ing-station. Turkey owns the nearest mainland, which, 
if fortified, would itself command Perim, and she will 



Marseilles to Bombay I 87 

not cede it to England ; who, in turn, will not allow her 
to fortify. Another Eastern Question hovers here 
which may possibly pester posterity. 

During the voyage we had opportunity of noticing 
what a lot of feeding and watering the English can 
stand. Provisions were regularly dished up seven 
times every day. There was early breakfast abed at 
six; regular breakfast at eight-thirty; beef tea and 
biscuit on deck at eleven and then luncheon, afternoon 
tea and dinner in succession, with a cold collation at 
ten on the side. Before our English tucked themselves 
away for the night the stewards had had a plenty to 
do and digestion was required to wait on appetite an 
average of seven times. The British officer, so nu- 
merous with us, is usually a gallant gentleman quite 
equal to leading a frontal attack — as history, both 
ancient and modern, attests- — but when off duty he is a 
luxurious creature wanting a deal of hot water, gruel 
and nursing. 

Wives and daughters were in profusion; every din- 
ner was a dress affair and there was dancing on deck 
or a concert nearly every evening. The fancy dance 
given between Suez and Aden was known as the "Reel 
Sea Dance," and if you could know how steaming hot 
it was right there that night you would wonder at 
such exertion. 

The two weeks aboard the ' ' Marmora ' ' slid by very 
pleasantly, with never a cyclone or typhoon to make 
us afraid. It was three o'clock in the morning when 
great Malabar Light, which lights the way to the har- 
bor of Bombay, came up out of the Indian Ocean — and 
I saw it come. Not because I wanted to study naviga- 
tion at that ghostly hour but because the heat of the 



1 88 Around the World in a Year 

cabin was stifling and sleep for me impossible. Malabar 
Light has been called "The Light of Asia." It stands 
at the threshold of that India which we have come so 
far to see — where three hundred millions swarm and 
struggle. May it be the light that will show the way 
to many who shall contribute to their uplifting. 



INDIA 

Before starting to cross India we should pause and 
take at least a glance at a few of its physical and social 
features. It will refresh recollection and aid the un- 
derstanding of what follows. 

India is a great empire in itself — larger than all 
Europe, with Russia left out. About two-thirds of this 
vast area is in the several British Provinces and one- 
third in the native states, so called. The native states 
remain under their hereditary native rulers, but each 
is carefully furnished with a British Resident, always 
at the elbow of the Nizam or the Maharajah. He rep- 
resents the Viceroy and must be accorded a hearing. 
Since the memorable mutiny of 1857 it has not been 
the policy of the government to formally annex more 
native states; although, since then, several Maharajahs 
have been deposed — some even imprisoned — and sev- 
eral lines of succession to the thrones arbitrarily 
changed. This, though, it is conceded, has always been 
for good cause — usually the insane squandering of 
taxes, disloyalty or evident mental disability. 

In India several entirely separate and distinct lan- 
guages and many dialects are spoken — each of them 
by millions. Hindustani, the dialect of Hindi, has be- 
come the literary language and the lingua franca. 
Every kind of climate is met with. The Punjab, dur- 
ing the four months preceding the rains, is about the 
hottest place on earth; and Bombay and Calcutta are 
not far behind. On the hills and southern plateau it 



190 Around the World in a Year 

is more equable; while the Himalayas, the highest 
mountains in the world, whose dizzy crests bound and 
defend India, are of course in the region of eternal 
snow. It rains one hundred and twenty inches in 
Darjeeling and only four inches over much of the great 
plains. Of the three hundred millions of people in 
India — about one-fifth the whole human family — two 
hundred and ten millions are Brahmanic Hindus ; sixty- 
five millions are Mohammedans and nearly three mil- 
lions (say one per cent.) are nominally Christians — 
nearly all of the latter are of the peasant class. Bud- 
dhism has been driven out of India proper; Burmah 
and Ceylon being now its strongholds, and there over 
ninety per cent, of the people are devout Buddhists. 

The government of this vast horde and this enormous 
territory, with its diverse climates, customs, castes, re- 
ligions, languages and nations, is unquestionably the 
most stupendous job in government yet undertaken by 
civilized man. Eleven hundred alien British — less than 
four to every million — as Governors, Residents, Com- 
missioners, Magistrates, Collectors, Judges and their 
deputies, have undertaken it; and with the result that 
there is peace, economical expenditure of public moneys 
and a just administration of the law — a present solu- 
tion, at least, of the greatest governmental problem 
of the age. 

With these few facts in mind, let us glance at Bom- 
bay and then proceed to cross. 

BOMBAY 

On shipboard I roomed with a Colonel in the Indian 
Army and met those who were expert in Indian travel 



Indi 



in 



191 



— so, stood to learn the best way to make the cross- 
ing. It seems that the thing for Europeans to do on 
landing is to engage a "boy" — a native servant or 
bearer, accustomed to the localities and who talks some 
English. With the aid of a fellow-passenger, who en- 
tertained us at his bungalow in Bombay, a certain Mo- 
hammedan was selected who saw me through to Cal- 
cutta. He was very helpful; cared for the luggage, 
had all to do with the coolies and cabmen, made up my 
bed in hotel and sleeping-car, accompanied me to the 
bazaars, beat off the beggars when too numerous, car- 
ried my messages, and slept just outside my room door. 
In the dead of night at out-of-the-way places while 
the lizards were dropping from the walls or bats were 
skimming about the room, which was practically wide 
open, it was something of a comfort to know that a 
certified native, devoted to my service, was sleeping on 
the threshold. Of course I had to notice his concern 
as to where my purchases were made and, sometimes, 
as to the selection of hotels and have no doubt he peeled 
a commission off from most of my expenditures. But 
'tis the way of the "boy" in the East, and I dare say 
that, on the whole, he saved me money as well as 
anxiety. 

Four fine American cruisers, each and every of 
them a four-piper, were at anchor when we arrived. 
They were bound for the Philippines. An English 
naval man told me it was the heaviest armament ever 
floated in Bombay harbor. I saw much of the Ameri- 
can jackies ashore. They wore their regulation blue 
flannels and looked hot. In that climate all other men- 
of-war's men were in cottons; and the native sailors 
wear next to nothing. It was a mistake. The day 



192 Around the World in a Year 

before had been pay-day ; and the three or four which 
followed were spending-days. It looked as if the 
hawkers and cabmen all over the place were quite en- 
joying life. In the early morning I saw one of our 
sailor boys — evidently sobering up — wearing a fez 
and vacantly watching a native manicuring him on the 
street, with a crowd of natives looking on. He ap- 
peared very comical in his heavy blue flannels topped 
by the fez, thus engaged. I asked what happened to 
his cap. He said he lost it and bought the first thing 
that would do. What occurred to the fellow who took 
his cap ; and what was said to the sailor by his mess- 
mates when he swung aboard — a la Turc — after a night 
of it, might furnish an interesting line were the par- 
ticulars at hand. 

All classes and races in India, except perhaps the 
native Princes, have been directly benefited by Brit- 
ish rule — and no race more so than the Parsees. This 
people came out of Persia many centuries ago, and by 
some historians are thought to be one of the Lost 
Tribes. Some things support the theory. They have 
the hook-nose and are thrifty, clannish and peaceable. 

Before the English control they were subject to 
bitter persecution — ground between the upper and 
nether millstones of Hinduism and Moslemism. All 
they need is to be let alone. The peace and order of 
these latter days in India — the pax britannica — is solid 
opportunity for the Parsees, who have waxed rich. 
Bombay has about a million in all, and it is called 
"The Parsee City" (though only about one-tenth are 
of that faith), very much of the business and wealth of 
the city being in their hands, far out of proportion to 
their numbers. 



India 



J 93 



The Parsees are called fire-worshippers, which they 
are ; but, to be more definite, it should be said that they 
worship the elements, earth and water as well as fire. 
That none of these may be polluted by disposal of the 
body after death they refuse to give it to the worms, 
as do Christians and Moslems, or to the burning or the 
Ganges, as do the Hindus. Instead, they procure it to 
be devoured by the ready vultures. It is a custom that 
has been in full force as long as their history runs, 
and is still invariably followed. 

A Parsee funeral in Bombay consists of taking the 
corpse to their "Towers of Silence," so called, and 
there depositing it nude on one of the gridirons which 
cap them, letting the vultures do the rest ; the sorrowing 
family and friends being engaged meanwhile in prayer 
and meditation in the little fire temple close by. The 
towers are about twenty-five feet in height and some- 
what more in diameter, with a well-hole into which the 
skeleton falls after being picked by the birds and dried 
and shrunken by the Indian sun. There the lime lique- 
fies in the rains, to which it is exposed during the wet 
season; and, running through charcoal, passes purified 
into the ground, and oblivion. 

I procured the necessary pass and drove out to the 
towers. They are in the midst of a beautiful flower gar- 
den on Malabar Hill, shaded by the lofty trees in- 
habited by the birds, and a high wall all about. On an 
average there are four or five funerals there daily, but 
the hours for visitors and for funerals are so fixed 
and separated that the gruesome curiosity of the sight- 
seer is seldom quite satisfied. It was early morning 
and there had been a funeral, or should I say an ex- 
posure, late the evening before. I will not go into 



194 Around the World in a Year 

particulars, except to repeat what I was told by the 
attendant, that the fifty or sixty vultures know their 
business so well that they congregate daily at certain 
hours — those times when, according to the rules, a fu- 
neral may be expected; and that as soon as a body is 
deposited they swoop from the trees and in two hours 
nothing is left but a bleaching skeleton, ready, when 
shrunken sufficiently, for the well below. It is cer- 
tainly economical, sanitary and expeditious; but oh! 
how all sentiment is outraged. 

On the way to the Towers of Silence we passed the 
great Hindu Burning-Ground where the Hindu dead 
are burned and the ashes preserved for the first oppor- 
tunity to be thrown into the Ganges. I was rather 
fiercely driven from one of the gates of the Burning- 
Ground, but, acting under a suggestion from my serv- 
ant, I tried another — and some coin. I saw the ma- 
chinery for the work and a number of little bags of 
ashes hanging to a tree awaiting the Ganges, but there 
was no burning going on. The feelings of my sensitive 
reader will therefore be spared — spared until he 
reaches the chapter on Benares, at least. All Euro- 
peans who go out to Bombay are due to go once to the 
Parsee ' ' Towers of Silence. " It is an unpleasant topic, 
but one which claims attention. 

The Hindu religion inculcates the belief that it is a 
sin to kill any dumb animal. From what I heard I do 
not think you could get a Hindu to go out and help kill 
a man-eating tiger. But there is no law against hop- 
ing and expecting the government to do it. Nor do 
they eat any flesh — they are vegetarians. Their belief 
in the transmigration of the souls of the wicked into 
animals is probably responsible for this, causing them 



India 195 

to look upon animals somewhat as we do upon un- 
fortunate relations. 

One of the most curious and interesting sights I saw 
during these journeyings was the Hindu hospital, or 
rest-house, for siek and homeless animals in Bombay. 
It covers several acres and there, in comfortable though 
crowded quarters, are caged or tethered hundreds of 
many sorts of animals, from buffalo to kittens — and 
I am told that there are many such places in India. If 
a Hindu has a badly crippled donkey, cow, goat, or dog 
or any animal too old for work, he does not take it 
out and shoot it as we would — for two reasons : first, 
because the government does not allow him to have 
firearms ; and second, and principally, because he would 
think it very sinful. No, he either keeps it until it 
drops dead, or, if too poor to do that, he takes it to 
the nearest Hindu hospital for useless animals. There 
it will be fed and watered and exercised and doctored, 
as carefully and tenderly as though in its prime. All 
at the expense of the Hindu community, and from con- 
tributions of the better-to-do of them. I saw there a 
three-legged ox, and many maimed animals, and nu- 
merous others in all stages of sickness and decline. My 
native servant drifted me there. No other European 
was about. Perhaps it was not a healthy place to visit; 
but it was certainly a sight full of instruction, and 
worth the taking of some chances. These rest-houses 
for animals go to show how gentle and also how re- 
ligious is the Hindu. 

If I had never seen Algiers or Cairo, the Orientalism 
and native life of Bombay would have been most im- 
pressive. It is a great modern city with exceedingly 
fine public buildings, and broad roads that are perfect. 



196 Around the World in a Year 

I liked to watch the thronging of the natives and to 
study the different races, their costumes and customs. 
The market house and bazaar are always centres of 
special interest. The census says Bombay is a city 
of one million. If that be so, then during the week 
I was there I must have seen about all of them, for I am 
sure I never saw such crowds as in the native quarter, 
except at the Mansion House. 

In the European quarter many of the bungalows 
of the English and Parsees would be conspicuous for 
their beauty even if in Newport or Scarborough; and 
where they are — set in their tropical gardens, which 
those Northern places could not imitate — they fit and 
adorn the landscape as if grown there. I found them 
wherever the English make their homes in the tropical 
East. Their national sports and open-air life are there 
transplanted — and I think accentuated — for wherever 
a dozen or more of them live you will see a good cricket- 
ground, fine tennis-courts, much pleasure riding in the 
early morning and late afternoon; and, in the larger 
settlements, a polo -field — and in some places a race- 
course as well — often with a smartness and go which 
would remind of Hurlingham and Hyde Park. The 
English in the East have imported the flavor and home- 
life of old England, but they have many more servants 
and put much more color in their livery. 



AHMEDABAD 

On the way to Ahmedabad, which is three hundred 
and ten miles from Bombay, my carriage companion 
was a young Englishman — a deputy collector or dis- 



India 197 

trict magistrate — who was going to the Baroda district 
to hear and settle some disputes which had arisen 
among the natives there. A lot of interesting informa- 
tion was the proceeds of a little judicious questioning, 
ranging from tiger hunting all the way to the Indian 
civil service. In exchange he wanted my ideas on the 
Monroe Doctrine, for which I find European politicians 
have an absorbing concern. I hope no harm was done. 

At Ahmedabad we lived at the government rest-house 
— there being no hotel — and found it clean and com- 
fortable. I will not tire you as I did myself over the 
architectural remains of other times which are there. 
We have been through Egypt. We saw another of 
those Hindu asylums for animals. It was crowded, and 
included a room where insects are fed. I think there 
was such a room in the establishment at Bombay, also. 

At the river side we saw scores of natives washing- 
clothes — Indian fashion of course ; that is to say, slam- 
ming them when wet with a full arm swing against 
some more or less flat stone and keeping at it — wetting 
and slamming. I hear that it is very destructive and 
had occasions enough to know it, later. It is the way 
clothes are washed all over India except in a few 
places where, you are told at least, it is done properly. 
Fancy having to give up your dress shirt or your pet 
Piccadilly pique suit to such rough and tumble. It is 
the way their own turbans and loin cloths have always 
been served and they seem to have no conception of 
a better. 

It was ninety-six in the shade at Ahmedabad by 
official record when we left there for Ajmeer. I am 
glad I did not attempt the crossing in hot weather. 



198 Around the World in a Year 



AJMEER 

Leaving Ahmedabad, another three hundred miles' 
journey brought us to Ajmeer. On the way hundreds 
of wild monkeys were seen in the trees or on the ground, 
most of them big and some very big — quite as large 
as grown setter dogs. It was a queer sight to see them 
jumping from bough to bough, weighing them down 
near to the breaking point, and this often within a 
stone's throw of the car window. I hear that the na- 
tives frequently have to defend themselves from them 
and that their womenkind have reasons to be particu- 
larly afraid. The Hindus regard monkeys as sacred. 
I kept hearing of the monkey god and saw the out- 
sides of several monkey god temples, so called — the 
pariah Christian is not allowed inside. 

Ajmeer is a walled city of considerable antiquity, 
the capital of a little British province, cut — for some 
reason or other — from the middle of the great native 
state of Rajputana. A glance at the map shows that 
it is of much political importance, since in strong 
hands it commands the surrounding native states. 

We liked the beautiful artificial lake and visited the 
old palace and mosques; but what most interested was 
Mayo College, where only Rajput Princes and the sons 
of native chiefs are educated. The white marble 
main building and the beautiful detached dormitories 
for the princelings, erected by the several native states 
— each for its own — were pointed out. This college and 
two others like it in other places in India are perhaps 
the most aristocratic and exclusive seats of learning 
in the world — native princely blood and quality alone 



India 199 

determining. England knows well the importance of 
making friends with the next generation of Mahara- 
jahs and headmen among her three hundred millions 
of Indian subjects. 

There were many beautiful birds of gaudy plumage 
on the edge of the jungle hereabout — herons, storks, 
parrots and others less familiar. The monkey and par- 
rot were again together — but not locked up together 
as those in the story. These things are further indica- 
tions we are a long way from Wall Street. 

It was at Ajmeer I first saw a leper — and there I saw 
two. One, a man nearly white, who was cooking and 
dealing out foodstuff in the very thickest of the 
crowded bazaar; and the other, a girl, in the earlier 
stages of the dread disease. My servant called my 
attention to them. He said he understood all lepers 
were watched and treated regularly, but taken to hos- 
pitals only when in the very last stages. It was not an 
appetizing sight. I should not like to be sentenced 
to eat food handled by that poor man. 

JEYPORE 

About one hundred miles beyond Ajmeer is Jeypore, 
our next stop. We found it exceedingly interesting. 
It is the capital of a small native state in central India 
of the same name ; one of a number of such states whose 
boundaries abut, and — taken together — are known as 
Rajputana. The rulers of the native states have the 
fullest liberty of action, as has been intimated, — even 
their own soldiery, — the government providing only 
against outrageous action such as barbarous punish- 
ment, senseless squandering of taxes or treasonable 



200 Around the World in a Year 

conspiracy. The British Residents accredited to the 
native courts live at the capitals, and it is their duty, 
I believe, to keep informed, advise and report. 

Jeypore has only sixteen hundred square miles, yet 
the population is nearly three millions. During my 
stay there the Maharajah was away, so I was deprived 
of the pleasure of meeting him, which certain letters, 
of which more anon, and the aid of the Resident would 
probably have accomplished. His prime minister, a 
scholarly and engaging Hindu gentleman, perfectly de- 
voted to his master, honored me with a call. Major 
Showers, the Resident, was also most polite. Through 
him the privilege of hunting the Maharajah's black 
buck or sticking his wild pigs (his, because everything 
in the country that is raised there belongs to him) was 
accorded. In his company, I enjoyed some deer stalk- 
ing in the jungle, two miles off. 

It was glorious — during the hour it lasted. I wished 
it were longer, but breakfast at the Residency, being by 
appointment of Mrs. Showers, could not be neglected. 
We separated, going in opposite directions. The 
Major bagged a beauty, and I wounded another, which 
went into the air and dropped as if dead, but man- 
aged to get up and hobble off under cover on three 
legs, poor thing. I motioned my native attendants to 
run him down — and they could have done so easily 
— but they pretended not to understand. I suspect they 
located the beast as venison for themselves. It was a 
long range head-on shot from a borrowed rifle, and 
the direction which went with it, to - ' take a fine sight, ' ' 
was too closely followed. Excuses are generally out* 
of order, but really the missing of a Maharajah's black 
buck by one who has won prizes for rifle shooting must 



India 201 

be accounted for. I stalked afoot for half an hour 
through the scrub and tall grass after others, but the 
gunfire had alarmed them and, as Mrs. Showers' break- 
fast gong seemed to be sounding, I had to give up the 
chase practically beaten. I met the Resident at the 
appointed place and the ride out of the jungle in our 
bullock-carts — one loaded with the dangling trophy and 
the other with that inglorious excuse — was humiliating, 
to one of us. How I wanted to forego the breakfast and 
take time enough to wipe out the burning disgrace can 
be guessed. 

At Jeypore I saw the Maharajah's cages of wild ani- 
mals — captured in his territories — and was particu- 
larly impressed by the way his big, fresh-caught tiger 
sprang at the bars when the curtain was raised. He 
came at it like an avalanche. I had been nursing a 
wish for a tiger hunt ever since reaching India, but 
must confess that fellow's actions beveled off some of 
its edge. Then again, while waiting for the train to 
Delhi, the station-master at Jeypore told me that the 
Prince of Wales got his big tiger the previous Novem- 
ber only six miles from there ; and that Lord Kitchener 
wounded his but ten miles away. (It was afterwards 
partially grilled and its coat was badly damaged when 
they burned it out of its lair.) These particulars were 
unknown to me when stalking the buck afoot — prac- 
tically alone — in that same jungle. If they had been 
known there would have been an additional lookout — 
behind, as well as before — even more interest in that 
breakfast, and some trepidation, I am sure. It may 
be that I was nearer a " yellow streak" than was in- 
surable and that — horresco referens — it was a case of 
the stalker being stalked. 



202 



Around the World in a Year 



The Maharajah of Jeypore in his own country owns 
everything, taxes everybody and spends the funds as 
he pleases — an absolute despot, excepting only as his 
actions may at times be modified by the Resident. The 
three millions he rules are not only his subjects, they 

are his servants. His is a 
feudal state pure and simple, 
where the headmen pay him 
regular tribute in money or 
service or soldiers. I saw a 
lot of them turning in their 
taxes in sizeable bags of 
silver at the treasury of 
the palace. His Hinduism 
is most orthodox. For a 
Hindu to go to Europe is 
generally to return in Euro- 
pean dress and to lose caste. 
It seems there was much 
heart-burning among his 
people when the Maharajah 
was invited to the corona- 
tion in London. To live 
in London, eat and drink with outcasts and from 
vessels handled by them — such contact for their 
Maharajah was too awful to contemplate and the mat- 
ter was for a time taken under most serious considera- 
tion with his priests and courtiers. Prestige with the 
English gained and caste with his own people lost, was 
the dismal outlook. For a while the disposition was 
to refuse, but a saving programme was hit upon. 
His Highness went as a Hindu and came back to his 
people the same — uncontaminated, as it were. He went 




Maharajah of Jeypore. 



India 203 

to the coronation in a ship he specially chartered, with 
over a hundred of his courtiers, priests and cooks. He 
even took his gods with him ; and, as may be expected, 
some of his goddesses as well. He goes in for god- 
desses — has six wives and between three and four 
hundred others. If he did not buy some of them, he 
must be a veritable Prince Charming. His great Pal- 
ace of Wind in the city faces Holy Street with its 
temples and bazaars; is seven stories high and is lat- 
ticed and pigeon-holed from ground to roof, so that 
the females of his family may look out on the city and 
its life without being seen. None of them ever go out- 
side the palace except in strictest purdah — hooded to 
the eyes and in a closed palanquin, entirely screened 
from view. They live and die completely isolated. It 
is said they die there without even their own people 
being notified or made aware. Palace secrets must not 
be taken into the outer world. It is needless to add 
that these particulars did not come from the Honora- 
ble Resident. I did, though, learn from him, and 
also from others, that the Maharajah of Jeypore is one 
of the best of the native rulers — beloved by his people 
and respected and trusted by the English. 



DELHI 

On the railroad through this north-central part of 
India amusement enough was furnished watching those 
monkeys in the trees and looking for horns and heads 
of deer above the brush. An occasional camel — our 
very good friend of the Nile — was also observed. The 
country hereabout is more than half jungle. From my 



204 Around the World in a Year 

comfortable perch in the compartment I watched with 
sympathy the sun-baked children of the soil at work in 
the fields in mid-afternoon, when the sun must have 
measured one hundred and thirty degrees, plus. The 
Indian sun at that height would be fatal to Europeans 
if unprotected, as are these people. They looked black 
as charcoal and dried to a. crisp; and their farming 
seemed hard and bad — irregular, patchy and meagre. 




Grass Cutting in India. 

The grass and grain are all cut and gathered by hand 
with never a machine— not even a scythe. A good Amer- 
ican farmer would probably approve of little that was 
done, or the way. The science of farming is at a low ebb 
here, and irrigation, so far as my observation went, 
was not often in evidence nor to be compared with that 
in Egypt. There the problem is the carrying of the 



India 205 

water of a great river a little to the right and left. 
Here in India it is the watering of great wide 
plains. 

We stayed three or four days at Delhi. It is an 
overgrown, walled city — the old Moghnl capital on the 
Jumnia — the centre of much magnificence during the 
Mohammedan rule. In comparatively recent times it 
has been captured successively by the Persians, by 
the Afghans, by the Mahrattas, and lastly, in 1803, by 
the English. It was at Delhi where were most of the 
important happenings of the great mutiny of 1857. 
Naturally I took renewed interest in the history of that 
revolt while visiting the famous ridge which the Eng- 
lish and their faithful Gourka levies occupied after 
being driven out of the city by the mutinous Sepoys, 
who murdered their English officers and turned their 
English rifles and cannon upon them. The Round 
Tower, and the Metcalf House, and the ruined 
Kashmir Gate were also objects of prime interest. 
It must have been a ghastly situation for them on 
the ridge, in the heart of a hostile continent, facing the 
forty thousand fanatics — trained native soldiery — hun- 
gry for their blood. Not only their own fate but the 
fate of British rule in India was in the balance dur- 
ing all those four months. The names of brave General 
Nicholson who led them and of the two lieutenants 
who sacrificed themselves in the blowing up of the 
Kashmir Gate, where the hardest fighting was done and 
which led to the recapture of the city, will last in 
history. Much is pointed out showing the conditions 
during those anxious and bloody months. One of the 
things which surprised me was the nearness of besieged 
to besiesrers. War in 1857 was close work. The cannon 



206 Around the World in a Year 

were ' only six hundred feet from the walls and the 
bayonet was then a means to an end. 

AGRA 

Before setting out on this journey I had little, if 
any, idea of the Taj Mahal at Agra and perhaps some 
of my readers share that ignorance ; but as we met one 
after another of those f resli from India we were warned 
that it was the most beautiful building in all the 
world, and now after seeing it I am sure that I echo 
the sentiment. Of course, any such statement is rash, 
for after all it is the angle of vision and individual 
experience which determines. 

The Taj Mahal was erected about two hundred and 
seventy-five years ago by one of the great Moghul Em- 
perors as the tomb of a favorite wife, and his own body 
was also laid there. It is wholly of white marble, 
plenteously and exquisitely inlaid — outside as well as 
inside — with semi-precious stones. I approach any de- 
scription of it with misgivings, as my lines have been 
cast among dry facts, premises and deductions, and this 
is a masterpiece of the most poetic of arts. But there it 
looms, unique, graceful and engrossing, in the line of 
our route, demanding mention. I went out to look upon 
it three times — once at sunset. It is on the Jumma, a 
mile or two from the city, in a beautiful garden, sur- 
rounded by a wall that nowhere offends the eye and 
which is pierced by several truly noble gateways. The 
setting was probably always very fine and now that 
the government has parked the outer precincts, its 
beauty is enhanced. His aim being to produce a 
monument to vanished beauty, the designer allowed his 



India 



209 



fancy to soar free, paying no tribute to utility, and the 
result is a picture in marble so full of warmth, of 
grace, and of calm that no words, certainly none of 
mine, can adequately describe it. 

At Agra we saw great preparations being made for 
the Viceroy's Durbar, held a month after our departure 
and to which the subsidized Amir of Afghanistan came 




Some Idea of the Interior, Taj Mahal, Agra. 

in state. The Indian Durbars are scenes of great mag- 
nificence. The yellow Orient then makes its effort, and 
as a show of barbaric splendor it is probably incom- 
parable. We were sorry to be unable to witness this 
one. 

LUCKNOW 

A stop of a couple of days here was amply repaid. 
The story of its siege and relief during the mutiny is a 



210 Around the World in a Year 

household classic. To go over the famous Residency 
around which for those four months the fires of the 
great revolt raged ; to go into its cellars where the hun- 
dreds of terrorized women and children, many of whom 
were killed, were huddled while the European troops 
and the few faithful Sikhs were fighting incessantly 
for their lives, making forts of the outbuildings and 
beating back the oft-repeated onslaughts of the horde 
which hemmed them in so closely on all sides, was of 
course absorbing. 

We were conducted about the place by an old soldier 
who took part in the defence, evidently proud of the 
medals he wore. He told us the tale of those bloody 
days. I had to remark again upon the nearness of the 
contending forces. The enemy were not over five hun- 
dred feet from the Residency on any side. No wonder it 
is such a ruin. You may remember that the place was 
twice relieved — partially by Havelock with a small 
force and great loss of life, and then — the tables being 
quickly turned on him and they being again beset — 
came Colin Campbell with his Highlanders and more of 
the loyal Sikhs, who fought their way through the thirty 
thousand well-armed and well-trained mutineers and 
brought the final relief. Deeds of great daring were 
done and a number of Victoria Crosses were well 
earned. 

That blowing of the two red-handed Sepoys from the 
guns at Cawnpore, which followed, has come in for 
much censure. While I join in the opinion that it was 
brutal and unnecessary, yet, those few hundred, penned 
there in Central India among three hundred millions on 
the edge of revolt; fiercely attacked by native troops 
who had murdered their officers and followed it up by 



India 21 1 

slaughtering defenceless women and children, should 
not be harshly judged. We hear of the "water cure" 
being — upon rare occasions — employed by American 
soldiers to punish fiendish Filipinos, or to make them 
confess. As explained to me by an officer fresh from 
the islands, with whom I traveled, the "water cure" — 
never sanctioned and but rarely resorted to — consists 
of pouring water through a funnel into the gullet until 
distention and pain make the subject pliable. Some 
died under the operation and loud outcry was made 
against that also. But we should know that they were 
dealing with those guilty of most horrible atrocities; 
as, for instance, mutilating the wounded; feigning dis- 
tress and knifing American surgeons who went to their 
relief, and burying American soldiers — alive — in red 
ant hills, with hands tied and sugar-cane on their heads, 
to draw the ants — all of which my officer-informant 
stated were facts; and I am otherwise credibly in- 
formed it is common knowledge there. War is not a 
lady's game, and summary dealing with such fiends by 
the comrades of those who suffer from such savagery is 
not likely to be conventional, or always strictly within 
the articles of war. Neither the blowing from the guns 
nor the "water cure" can be wholly excused, but, being 
a lawyer, I am particular that both sides should be 
heard. 

BENARES 

As we are rapidly approaching the holy city of 
Benares — our next stop — we should now take at least a 
glance at the Hindu religion. The Hindu is a highly 
religious creature. Perhaps nowhere on earth does 



212 Around the World in a Year 

religion require so much of its devotees as of him. 
Benares to us was the most interesting place in India. 
There are more than two thousand temples there — 
think of it — each fitted with a graven image of some one 
of the many gods to which the Hindus bow down. They 
range from the big golden-topped temple, well worth 
a visit, despite its stenchy neighborhood, to the way- 
side shrines no bigger than a barrel, and most of them 
are of the latter order. The temple with the golden top 
has two towers and a dome, said to be thickly covered 
with pure gold — but it is out of reach. The enormous 
expense of it was borne by the Maharajah of some- 
where or other. No other idol-worshipper in this year 
of our Lord could and would undertake such a job. 

I do not pretend to have mastered an understanding 
of the Hindu religion. Englishmen with a record of 
years in India have told me it is past finding out ; and 
I hear that even the statements and the dreamy philos- 
ophy of pure-souled Annie Besant — the alien apostle 
of Hinduism, who lives in Benares — are disputed by 
the Pundits and more learned Brahmans. To hear 
these things was of course very discouraging to the 
novice, but I persevered; listened to an explanation of 
some features of the religion by a Hindu of high caste 
and deep learning, who journeyed with me a distance; 
and had a long talk with a graduate of the Central 
Hindu College, which is also at Benares. The graduate 
was a highly intelligent and gentlemanly Hindu with 
a fund of English not only good but elegant. His ex- 
planations were most deft. I wish some of them could 
be transmitted verbatim et literatim — inflection, ges- 
ture and all. They would probably interest the reader 
as they did me. The educated Hindu mind is an in- 



India 213 

strument of exceeding subtlety and nimbleness — the 
utmost refinements of metaphysics are a pastime for it. 

My investigations have left the belief that the re- 
ligion of the Hindu millions is a complication of image 
worship, sacrifice, demonology and magic. The goal of 
their religious effort is to reach Nirvana — freedom 
from the bondage of matter — a truly beautiful thought. 
Fear dominates them, for the winning of Nirvana 
means escape from reincarnation; which, being inter- 
preted by them, is the transmigration of the soul after 
death into the lower animals, from one to another, 
through thousands of years, until in due course it shall 
return to the human body and have a fresh start — rein- 
carnation, coming as punishment for unexpiated sin 
done in the body. Such a hell, or rather purgatory, to 
us is, not only fanciful, but, as the young lady put it, 
"quite too awful for words." It became interesting 
to try to find out what they understood by sin. And 
from all I could gather, the principal or cardinal sins, 
recognized by the uneducated multitude, are inattention 
to temple duties, killing of or cruelty to animals, dis- 
respect to the priesthood or failure to assist in their 
support, and contact with the prescribed outcasts or 
pariahs. Any of these things — if not extirpated by 
penance and sacrifice, as by washing in and worship- 
ping the Ganges, according to formula ; or by dying on 
its sacred banks or in some other way — would be sure 
to bring the sinner down with a bad case of that horrible 
reincarnation. It is to his theory of reincarnation that 
the Hindu probably owes his extreme kindness to 
animals — and also his vegetarianism. 

The Hindus have three principal gods, Siva the de- 
stroyer, Vishnu the preserver and Brahma the creator, 



214 Around the World in a Year 

with many other lesser but usually terrible deities in 
addition. Each of the three great gods has adopted 
a private mark by which his suppliants are distin- 
guished. These "god-marks," as they are called, are 
painted by the priests in red or white on the black fore- 
heads of the devotees — yes, even foreheads are given 
up to such use — and sometimes on their chests as well ; 
so that you can know to which great god each for the 
while is confining his attentions. The destroyer's 
mark is always much in evidence, showing, as has been 
said, that fear dominates the Hindu heart. Town and 
country taken together, it seemed to me that at least 
half of the Hindu foreheads were painted with one or 
other of the three god-marks. Until you get used to 
it the effect is almost grotesque. 

We were two days at Benares. It is a dirty place. 
They say over a million make pilgrimage there every 
year from all parts of India — many ill or disabled. 
As the cure requires six days it can be figured that 
the place must be crowded all the time. Every pilgrim 
on completion of the cure receives a certificate. We 
were rowed on the Ganges in the early morning when 
the worship of the river is at its height. It is lined for 
a mile with monasteries, temples, shrines, sacred wells, 
sacred bathing ghats, burning-grounds and the palaces 
of Maharajahs — rest-houses for their own use and for 
the pilgrims from their respective countries. He of 
Jeypore has a particularly fine one there. We saw 
thousands of pilgrims standing in the river, either bath- 
ing in it, drinking it or absorbed in prayer to it. Some 
would hold themselves under until nearly drowned and 
many were casting flowers upon it ; others were purify- 
ing their utensils or preparing to carry away some of 



India 215 

the water of the sacred river to distant homes; while 
others were burning the dead at its edge. To come 
somewhat suddenly upon all this rush and medley of 
worship of the Ganges made us rub our eyes, wondering 
if it was not all a dream. 

It was the burning-ground, though, that chained my 
attention. This is the place on the margin of the sacred 
river where for centuries unnumbered the bodies of 
those Hindus whose family or estate permitted the cost 
of transportation have been burned. Several corpses 
were being prepared and several others were going up 
in flame and smoke. I believe in cremation, thoroughly, 
but what held me were the attending yellow-robed 
priests ; the burners, who were born to their gruesome 
work, it being their caste; the resting of the bodies so 
that the feet were immersed in the river; the incanta- 
tions while walking around the pyre a certain number 
of times before the torch was applied ; then the awkward 
show of charred arms and legs, and lastly, the casting 
of what little remained into the river. 

The Sati stones at one side of the burning-ground 
were pointed out. They are the stones upon which 
(until the British Government, only a few years ago, 
considered itself strong enough to prohibit it) many 
a Hindu widow was burned alive with her husband's 
corpse. My Central India college-student guide told 
me that the people have not ceased to resent the govern- 
ment 's action, and that many — including many women 
— would pursue the practice if allowed. Can ties of 
religion be tautened beyond that ? 

Leaving Benares with heads buzzing with its sights, 
and with a lot of its brass under our arms, as it were, 
we moved on to Calcutta — completing without accident 



216 Around the World in a Year 

the crossing of India. It had been hot and dusty and 
the night travel most uncomfortable, but let that pass. 
Thence after a few days we went on to Darjeeling, 
which, for the sake of rhythm, we will discuss first. 



DARJEELING 

Calcutta to Darjeeling in the Himalayas means a 
journey of twenty-one hours — traversing the length 
of one railroad, crossing the Ganges by steamboat and 
then going the lengths of two more railroads. The 
sacred river is crossed a long way below Benares, but 
any unclassified floating stuff you see there you have 
the right to suppose is human remains from the burn- 
ing-grounds. I carefully refrained from fish that 
morning. At Silligure the narrow-gauge Himalayan 
railroad receives you. This place is on the edge of 
the plains but backed by the foot-hills and a dense 
jungle, famed over all India alike for its unhealthiness 
and its richness in tigers, elephants and other big 
game. Silligure was the base of operations of that re- 
cent military expedition into Thibet which laid its level- 
ing hands on hitherto inaccessible and prohibited 
Lhassa. After seeing something of the country there- 
about it was possible to appreciate the prodigious diffi- 
culties of such an expedition; which had not only to 
pass the Himalayas, but to traverse for a long dis- 
tance that highest of plateaus called the "Koof of the 
World" — much of it with fourteen to sixteen thousand 
feet of elevation. 

After an eight-hour climb up eight thousand feet 
from Silligure on the mountain railway, we were put 



India 



217 



down at Darjeeling and were, at once, repaid for the 
journey. Like Simla it is one of the hill stations or 
sanitariums to which fever-smitten or heat-tired Euro- 
peans go to mend. Its situation is grand, being almost 
surrounded by the tallest mountains in the world. It 
is in the corner made by the joining of Assam, Nepal, 




Four Distinct Races. Darjeeling. 

Thibet, Bhoutan and India ; and to see the strange mix- 
ture of races there is, alone, worth the journey. But 
what of those mountains ? The peak of Everest cleaves 
the sky at twenty-nine thousand and two feet one hun- 
dred and forty miles away, and is visible from Tiger 
Hill just back of Darjeeling. It was a four o'clock in 
the morning undertaking, so I consoled myself with 
Kunchainjunga, the second highest, twenty-eight thou- 
sand one hundred and fifty-six feet, and the several 
others of nearly equal elevation which rise grandly and 



21 



Around the World in a Year 



in plain view ; looking even higher than Everest because 
but forty-five miles away — and seeming very much 
nearer. Mont Blanc, the highest of the Swiss Alps, is 
fifteen thousand seven hundred feet. Comparisons are 
odious, but nevertheless there are forty-five peaks in 
the Himalayas each known to exceed twenty-three 
thousand feet. I witnessed a sunrise there when the 
peaks were cloudless — something rare — and the bur- 
nishing of those dizzy tops, while villages and ra- 
vines were still in dense darkness, was unspeakably 
impressive. 

From the Woodlands Hotel at Darjeeling I looked 
right into a ravine four thousand feet deep, over which 
great eagles were continually soaring. Not the least 
interesting sight was watching them as, with striding 
wing, they swooped from poise to poise; now casting a 
shadow on the sunlit green and then limned against 




The Himalayas, from Darjeeling, 



India 219 

the snowy heights — falling, hovering and rising with- 
out losing speed or flapping a wing. If they did flap 
I didn't catch them at it. I wondered at it, and am 
still wondering. 

CALCUTTA 

Calcutta did not chain my attention. In general, it 
seemed to be a replica of Bombay except that here was 
the Vice-regal Palace, and that the Bengali are a stur- 
dier race. An afternoon drive on the concourse dis- 
closes evidence of much wealth, not only among Euro- 
peans but also among the natives. I hear that some 
of them thrive enormously. Many unusually showy 
liveries are seen. Two stalwart Sikh coachmen and 
two stalwart Sikh outriders attached to the same 
equipage — all four in strikingly beautiful turbans and 
native clothes — is a common sight. I attended the Eng- 
lish service at St. Paul's Cathedral in Calcutta. Set 
in its spacious, well-kept and leafy green, with its many 
memorial tablets, a great window by Burne-Jones and 
its chimes, it is a bit of rural England, although 
the numerous Eurasians in the choir and congrega- 
tion do rather damage the illusion. A fine statue has 
been erected to Lord Roberts — an unusual honor done 
a man still in the harness. His Kandahar campaign 
and great work on the northwest frontier certainly en- 
titled him to it ; but I wondered at the absence through- 
out India of any statue to Lord Clive, although to his 
genius, as much if not more than to that of any other, 
Britain owes the winning of her Eastern empire. I 
never heard the reason for this strange omission, and, 
as a reader of Macaulay, I entered a silent protest. 



220 Around the World in a Year 

I left London with letters from Mr. Morley, the Right 
Honorable Secretary of State for India, accrediting me 
to the Governors of the provinces of Bombay and 
Madras, and also to the Viceroy. That I shamefully 
mismanaged them is now perfectly clear. The Gov- 
ernor of Bombay was away on a tour during the time 
I was there, and that letter went to waste. The letter 
to the Viceroy I carried all across India without the 
slightest use being made of it, although I kept reading 
that His Excellency was in far-away Kashmir mak- 
ing stately progress with a large party — hunting bear, 
and having what can properly be called a royal time. 
I waked up to the mistake when the hotel proprietor at 
Calcutta, on the night before my leaving for Burmah, 
hearing of the unused Morley letter to the Viceroy, 
just gasped at my foolishness and berated me for wast- 
ing such an opportunity. He reminded me that the 
Secretary of State for India "ran the whole show" 
and that letters from him to travelers were scarce, and 
said that if I had sent the letters forward as soon as 
Bombay was reached I would have stood a more than 
good chance of an invitation to join the shooting party; 
and that the last traveler at his hotel who carried a let- 
ter from the Secretary of State was sent for by the 
Viceroy to live at Government House. But what was 
the use of his harrowing up my feelings with such a 
post-mortem f For me it was light which came too late, 
for I was booked to start for Burmah the next day and 
went — but not before sending forward the last of the 
letters, that to Sir Arthur Lawley, the Governor of 
the province of Madras, where I hoped to go when done 
with Burmah. If all I lost was place at social func- 
tions it causes little regret, but the chance to meet 



India 221 

the men who rule hundreds of millions and who occupy 
the showiest places in the East, with possibilities of 
bear hunting and beaters, on the side, was, as you see, 
frittered away. 

Now that we are about to leave India, for a while, 
suppose we pause before passing to other countries and 
collate a few topics which may interest, as they did us. 

In India all who are not wholly white, the Europeans 
call "natives" — a generic term embracing not only 
the Hindus, Burmese, Thibetans and Oeylonese, but the 
Eurasians also. They are the half-breeds ; significantly 
called Eurasians because in them runs the blood of 
Europe and of Asia. You will notice that it is a word 
definitively perfect. The Eurasians are of lighter skin 
— frequently with only the faintest trace of color — but 
usually of a sickly, bilious hue. Physically and men- 
tally below par, they are generally possessed of some 
education — often seen in clerical employ at the post 
offices, railroad stations and stores and affecting the 
European dress. Theirs is not a happy lot. They are 
compelled to keep much to themselves, being detested 
by the true natives and always looked askance at by the 
Europeans. A few get on the fringe of society, but 
only those who have risen to high place in business. 
The Eurasian in India is to be pitied. Wherever the 
fault, it was not his. 

I gained the impression that the English in India are 
held more in fear than affection — certainly by the serv- 
ing classes. I had to notice the arrogance with which 
the horde of native servants is treated, and that horde's 
abject servility. I seldom heard a word addressed to 
them by any European which was not full of command. 
To call an Indian servant, it is "Boy!" — and that with 



222 Around the World in a Year 

a bark. The idea seemed to be, for them to be allowed 
to wait upon you was a favor conferred, and to make 
clear what was wanted a bore. When I spoke of this 
seeming severity I was told it was necessary; that it 
is either implicit obedience through fear or else lack 
of respect and confusion ; that any show of kindness is 
lost on the Oriental — that it is the only way. Even 
with the educated classes, including the Parsees and 
Babus, the English allow little in common, socially. 
While the races go along remarkably well together they 
do not mix well; and it is the English who hold aloof. 
The natives of all classes respect them, for they have 
learned that they alone can be trusted — that the gov- 
ernment's aims make for their general good and that 
a British promise is pretty certain to be followed by 
performance. 

There may be some similarity between conditions 
there and those which obtained in France before the 
Revolution. History makes it clear that it was not 
alone the extravagance of the nobles which brought 
it on, but the hauteur and contumely which they 
meted out to the populace, as well. The English in 
India ride, play hockey, cricket, tennis and polo, and 
race, hunt, dine and wine; but they do it only among 
themselves and with their kind. As for the native — 
well, they work hard and efficiently for him, in the mass 
— deal out good government to him. Despots they, 
who happen to be efficient and benevolent. Lust of 
dominion drew them there and keeps them there, but 
the residuum is mercy and justice. 

The internal history of India for the past hundred and 
fifty years, excepting for the great revolt of 1857-8 and 
the struggles on the northwest frontier, is of one long 



India 223 

period of peace almost profound. Recent revolution- 
ary demonstrations in the Punjab are probably more 
or less local in character and the result of the propa- 
ganda preached there by Babu agitators. The govern- 
ments good or bad of nearly all countries are con- 
tinually subject to attempts at overthrow. It is claimed 
that native industries are not fostered by the govern- 
ment, that they are offered up as a sacrifice upon the 
altar of British trade. I don't quite see how that can 
possibly be wholly true for almost everything but arms 
can be brought into the country, and Germany and the 
United States and every trading nation find there an 
open door and a great market. Before espousing the 
cause of those whose cry is "India for the Indians" it 
would be well to inquire if conditions as respects 
health, happiness and native industries are any bet- 
ter or even as good in the great Native States there 
where the native Princes gather and spend the taxes 
and, while loyal to the government, are practically let 
alone by it. We all sympathize with the yearnings of 
the educated class for perfect freedom, but my observa- 
tion leads me unhesitatingly to the opinion that the 
Indian masses are very far from ready for representa- 
tive government. If Great Britain should tire of her 
burden and quit, or if she was driven out; what then! 
The ferocity of the Afghans and hill tribes would be 
unchecked and they would quickly descend upon and 
conquer the less warlike plainsmen, divided as they are 
into hostile races and religions. Such change bodes po- 
litical chaos and retrogression, ending inevitably in sim- 
ply a change of masters. From the alien British to the 
alien Russian or German, or — what is even more likely 
— to the alien Japanese, as the strongest probability. 



224 Around the World in a Year 



SACRED BULLS 

In many places in northern and central India, and 
usually near to temples, I saw sleek bulls wandering 
solitarily and at will, without keepers ; and on inquiry 
learned that they were sacred bulls, dedicated as year- 
lings with ceremony to some of the gods, as salve for 
sin committed or sop for some special favor hoped for ; 
as, for instance, recovery from sickness. In a country 
where every farm-animal has its attendant pretty con- 
stantly on watch — even to the boniest goat — it struck 
me as strange to see bulls treading crowded bazaars 
and narrow alleys with no one to limit their operations. 
Like the beggar castes, they live off the Hindus as a 
right. A Mohammedan would drive it away from his 
vegetable basket, but a Hindu, appreciating its sacred 
quality, while he might try to keep his green goods out 
of the bull's sight, would never drive him off. Brows- 
ing thus practically at will, doing no work and treated 
tenderly, they grow exceeding tame ; but, nevertheless, 
it may be supposed that if a sacred bull got into a pro- 
fane crockery shop he would mix things just as did that 
other bull. 

THE CLIMATE 

Some one has said of India that it is "four months 
hot and eight months hotter," and you can't use me to 
disturb that statement. The climate on the seacoast 
and great plains of India and Burmah is decidedly un- 
healthy. I was there in November and December — 
their cold weather — but it seemed dangerously hot 



India 225 

every day and, certainly, it was horribly hot at night. 
What their hot weather is like I can only imagine. It 
was as hot in Bombay, Calcutta and Rangoon while I 
was there, as in New York City when at its hottest. A 
steamy heat at that. No European thinks of getting 
into the sun's rays — even to cross a road — without the 
protection of his big cork hat — his solar topee. There 
is a striking force in the Indian sun, dreaded by travel- 
ers, due to its peculiar actinic qualities, quite out of 
proportion to the temperature; and that requires no 
apologies, for the thermometer made daily incursions 
for us into the nineties. 

If you dress in a few unstarched cottons, do not exert 
yourself, stay in the shade and within the sphere of a 
punkah, even midday during their cold weather can be 
endured with composure. But you cannot comfortably 
ignore any of the ingredients in that formula. No won- 
der that the ruddy glow of Englishmen and the pink 
and white of the Englishwomen disappear and most 
of them look so sun-dried and sallow. Five years usually 
weakens the liver and furnishes several bouts with 
fever. From the frightful bubonic plague and deadly 
cholera of India the Europeans generally prove im- 
mune, but not always. The wife of the recently retired 
United States Consul at Bombay was attacked by the 
plague just before I reached there, and his little daugh- 
ter died from it. 

Official report shows that over thirty thousand were 
killed in India last year by wild animals, principally by 
the snakes — which goes to show the amount and kind of 
jungle there. I saw hundreds who were swollen with 
elephantiasis — horrible sights — and I understand lep- 
ers are numerous. There were twenty-five deaths in 



226 Around the World in a Year 

Calcutta, alone, from tetanus the week I was there, ac- 
cording to official report. I know no reason why it 
would not be correct to assume that that was not more 
than Calcutta 's quota of such cases, multiplied through- 
out the country. The people of India are a barefooted 
people, and of course lockjaw does its work. Plague 
and famine are fought hard by the government, and 
both are held much in check, but their periodical recur- 
rence has come to be looked upon by many as normal, 
and the massing of population and failure of crops as 
natural phenomena- — susceptible to amelioration but 
hardly capable of management. By others, no less 
thoughtful, plague and famine are deemed providential 
shields against over-population. The fact is, there was 
but one and a half per cent, increase in the population 
of India during the previous decade, according to the 
census of 1901. 

As viewed by me India is not a white man 's country. 
Luxury there is much of, real comfort but little. The 
white men who have suffered and struggled there and 
wrought such wonderful benefit to its teeming millions, 
have either laid their bones there or, after long service, 
gone "home" to enjoy their pensions with such health 
and vim as the very trying climate had left them. India 
was their workshop but never their home. 



THE WOMEN OF INDIA 

"Women in India, like their sisters in Egypt, are con- 
sidered as inferior beings. The best of them are sel- 
dom seen, being practically prisoners in their hus- 
bands' homes. Education is thought to be beyond them 



India 227 

or too good for them, and the census shows an average 
of but one in every hundred and forty women in India 
who can read and write their own language. That any 
of them can read and write is probably owing almost 
entirely to the work of the foreign mission schools. 
Senseless custom makes a daughter's marriage ex- 
pensive. The festivities and the necessary dot, if they 
be very poor — and a thousand to one they are — are a 
heavy drain upon resources meagre to attenuation. 
And this though the dot be only a cocoanut tree and a 
goat. We can suppose the baby daughter gets scant 
welcome in India. The last census shows that there 
are five millions fewer females than males. From these 
facts the conclusion must follow that female infanticide 
— so generally suspected — is proved beyond any rea- 
sonable doubt. 

Unless the native girl is married very young — as 
soon as grown — her family is considered disgraced. A 
native judge of the High Court told me that the aver- 
age age of marriage among Hindu girls is between 
eight and nine, and that as soon as the child is grown 
she passes to the husband. It is all infancy and woman- 
hood with her — no intervening girlhood. I plainly un- 
derstood from the judge's talk that the custom is based 
upon suspicion. When she passes to her husband there 
is a second ceremony; with music and feeding in which 
his relatives take a leading part, the particulars of 
which cannot be given here. 

Upon the subject of Hindu polygamy the learned 
native judge was not communicative. Perhaps for 
personal reasons. But he did say that under the Indian 
law, when a wife presents her husband with an un- 
broken succession of daughters.; say three, that in it- 



228 Around the World in a Year 

self is one of the reasons why, with the permission of 
his temple authorities, he may add to his household and 
take to himself another wife. From what he and others 
told me I concluded that polygamy is wide open to those 
Hindus who, having the little sufficiency of means, are 
also solid with their temple brethren. 

The British Government is encouraging a movement, 
started among the educated native class, to do away 
with infant marriage, which is on the increase ; but the 
native judge told me that it was receiving only news- 
paper support, and he thought it would not and should 
not succeed. The stamping out of the very ancient and 
revolting custom of burning the widow upon the hus- 
band's pyre is a part of the price they pay for British 
government. Infant marriage, though, admits of a dif- 
ference of opinion, is a mandate in the social order 
founded on parental dominion, and is the immemorial 
custom of a people who are as the sands of the sea. 
But the effort is being made, and with all the force 
which the case permits; and some fine day, possibly 
centuries hence, infant marriage among the Hindus 
will be abolished and the little Hindu girl will wax 
strong in girlhood before she takes the man who, in 
some degree at least, will then for the first time in their 
history be of her own choosing. 



THE TYPE 

The Hindu villagers and the mass of the common 
people of the plains look remarkably alike. The type is 
nearly black; thin almost to emaciation, soft featured 
and with a mild and kindly expression. He wears 



India 229 

plenty of turban but only a single body cloth — chest, 
back, legs and feet are bare ; for 

"The poor benighted Hindu 
He does the best he kindo. 
He sticks to his caste 
From tirst to last, 
And for pants — he makes his skindo. " 

But he has his revenge. His shapely tapering waist 
and "straight front" are a rebuke to nearly every 
European of either sex, over thirty, whom he sees. The 
necessary lines of physical beauty are not likely to be 
lost to him by indolence or overfeeding. He does not 
become big-bodied and paunchy — distended with course 
meals, three times every day. The coolies, villagers and 
junglees all over India have a way of resting which 
struck me as somewhat curious, though I never heard 
it referred to by others. At any railroad station or 
bazaar or cross-roads, wherever they congregate, many 
will be seen doubled up like jack-knives sitting on the 
points of their haunches — knees and chin together — 
monkey fashion. They will sit in that way almost mo- 
tionless for hours — each of them a study in brown in a 
brown study, as it were. Cabmen waiting for a fare, in- 
stead of using their comfortable box-seats, will be seen 
perched squatting thus on the top of them. There may 
be a faint suggestion here for any in quest of the miss- 
ing link. Perhaps in this way prehistoric man wore his 
tail off. 

THE INDIAN RAILWAYS 

Some features of the Indian government's control of 
railroads should, I think, be especially instructive to 



230 Around the World in a Year 

us in America, where railroad corporations have grown 
so tremendously that the curbing of their power has 
become a popular demand and the most important 
plank in the platform of a great party. From a high 
Anglo-Indian railroad official with whom I traveled 
from Benares, I learned much of the railroad situation 
in India, which was confirmed by others and by inves- 
tigation. The policy of the government of India is to 
own all the railroads. All charters granted to private 
companies for building railroads there have been, and 
are, subject to a provision that the government may 
purchase at the end of a stated period — generally 
twenty-five years — at a price equal to the then value 
of its capital stock and bonds, as shown by the average 
of quotations for them in the open market during the 
previous five years. It seems to me that the insertion 
of that option greatly simplifies the way to state owner- 
ship, when wanted. The securities are thus stamped, as 
it were, with the government's right; and value and 
proper price are quickly and equitably obtained. 

So far the Indian government has always exercised 
its option, and the roads so acquired, with the few 
others of strategic or military value which it has itself 
constructed, amount to over eighty-five per cent, of the 
entire railway mileage, approximating thirty thousand 
miles. It should also be known that the British-Indian 
charters are for one hundred years only; at the 
expiration of which the roads fall in and, ipso facto, be- 
come public property — not granted in perpetuity, as 
with us. This I consider another very valuable feature. 
In the option to purchase at a price practically fixed 
and these limited-period charters the way, I think, is 
pointed to the solution in America of many of the puz- 



India 



231 



zling and dangerous questions of state ownership of 
public business — at least so far as relates to charters 
hereafter granted. An enabling amendment to the fed- 
eral and, perhaps, to the state constitutions might be 
required, and they could easily be obtained in the 
present temper of the people unless, forsooth, defeated 
by railroad strategy. 

Government ownership of railroads works well in 
India. All the roads are on a good paying basis except 
the military roads; and, taken as a whole — politically, 
financially and prospectively — government ownership 
bids fair to be of immense advantage to the people of 
India. No claim has yet been raised that either poli- 
tics, corruption or extravagance has entered into the 
government's management; the only unfavorable criti- 
cism being as to the necessity for extensions, of which 
about three thousand miles are under construction or 
projected. All the railroads cater to three classes of 
passengers, and several important ones to as many as 
four classes; that is to say, a first, a second, an inter- 
mediate — so-called — and a third class. The peasant 
millions travel third class, and do so at the remark- 
ably low rate of one-third of a cent (American money) 
per mile. And foodstuffs, coal and other staples are 
carried at an average of a farthing only per ton per 
mile. "And the average rate for all descriptions of 
goods carried per ton per mile was five and one-quarter 
pies, or just under a halfpenny" (Adm. Report on 
Railways in India, 1905). Where in America is the 
public so well served by the railroad corporations and 
such a tariff approached ? To be sure, the British- 
Indian military forces contribute. Officers of the 
Royal Engineers regiments are told off from time to 



232 Around the World in a Year 

time to act as chief or consulting or assistant engi- 
neers and for special service to the several railroads. 
But so could some of the highly educated engineers 
in the American army — and experience thus gained 
would add strength to the country's military forces. 

The average pay of the common laborer on the Indian 
railroads, according to my expert informants, is from 
two and a half to three and a half annas a day — equiva- 
lent to from five to seven cents in American money — of 
itself a startling proof of the poverty of the people 
and the pressure of its population. That pittance — the 
ruling rate of wages for unskilled labor there — does 
not account for the astonishing disparity between the 
cost of transportation to the people and for their 
necessaries in a comparison between those government- 
owned railroads of India and the private corporation- 
owned roads in America. 



THE CIVIL GOVERNMENT OF INDIA 

The government of India, as was said, is adminis- 
tered by less than twelve hundred British, who occupy 
the executive and responsible offices — from Governors 
of provinces and High Court judges to deputy collect- 
ors. Only a few of the higher offices are held by natives ; 
but nearly all the very many minor offices and clerk- 
ships in post offices, railways and other public business 
are filled by the Eurasians and natives. Native judges 
preside over all the lower courts ; but appeals therefrom 
are all heard by English judges. Appointments to 
those higher administrative offices (Lieutenant-Gov- 
ernorship of a province being the summit) are made 



India 233 

through the Indian Civil Service; and, though wide 
open to the natives who can fit themselves and lead in 
the competition, only a few enter, and fewer succeed. 
They are under no impediment or discrimination 
of any kind except that, as the examinations for a 
foothold upon the ladder leading to those higher offices 
are always held in London, they would be required to 
do that much more traveling. 

This higher branch of the Indian Civil Service is 
a very stiff institution, requiring youth, health and 
hard training. No one is eligible for its appointment 
who is not already proficient in the ruling language of 
the particular district in which he seeks employment, 
and learned also in its history, laws and customs ; and 
who has not led against all comers in the examina- 
tions. Then when there is a vacancy in the department 
of work he is educated for he is sent out on pro- 
bation, to start from the lowest rung of that ladder. 

Seventy-five per cent, of Indian civil servants are 
university men; and for character and efficiency it is 
very probably a governing force unequaled in any coun- 
try in the world. 

You may think this record is about to lapse into 
black seriousness and a tangle of statistics, but have no 
fear — spirits are still high, the world out here looks 
very beautiful and we are as if skipping on our 
way. 



BURMAH 

We reeled off the eight hundred and fifty miles in the 
voyage from Calcutta to Rangoon, down the treacherous 



234 



Around the World in a Year 



Hooghly and across the Bay of Bengal, under condi- 
tions that were ideal. We saw Rangoon at its best : that 
is to say, in the winter. It was very hot there during the 
day but sufficiently cool at night. It has long been in 
British hands and is really a fine city, with broad 




Buddhist Priests Collecting Alms, Burmah. 

roads and good ones. In the European quarter there 
are many beautiful bungalows, a race-course and fine 
recreation grounds. A drive in the early morning 
around the Royal Lake and home through Dalhousie 
Park was very enjoyable. The park, freshened by the 
night damp and dripping yet with its dew, was a pic- 
ture of tropical beauty. Some of the views there are as 
lovely as can be imagined. Nothing in London or New 
York compares with them. For a companion piece we 
must revert to beautiful Margareten Island in the 
Danube. 



India 235 

The Shwe Dagon pagoda at Rangoon is really most 
imposing. A Buddhist pagoda, or temple, is a construc- 
tion like nothing else on earth. This one starts from 
high ground and — all gilded — tapers and towers three 
hundred and seventy feet ; which is said to be higher 
than the cross over St. Paul's Cathedral. It is the St. 
Peter's of the Buddhists, and millions have made pil- 
grimage to it from all over Burmah and Ceylon. It 
is surrounded by monasteries and shrines, at which 
latter many worshippers were seen. They say it was 
built prior to 500 b.c, but the thought is general that 
the original pagoda was very much smaller and has 
become the core, as it were, from being built upon, and 
over, many times. This enormous structure is solid, 
except for a single secret relic-chamber, which we were 
not allowed to enter, said to be underneath and to con- 
tain relics of the Buddha. The umbrella-top is heavy 
with costly jeweled bells, presented by some king. I 
was much struck with the Shwe Dagon pagoda. In its 
antiquity, strange formation, religious value and size 
it ranks among the world's great monuments. 

( )ne fine morning — only two years ago — a tiger was 
discovered perched high on a projection of the great 
pagoda. It had evidently strayed there overnight 
from the neighboring jungle. It was an awkward sit- 
uation for all hands. The Buddhists protested against 
any violence in the sacred precincts ; but after a lot of 
parleying some one of another religion, or of no re- 
ligion, with a well-aimed bullet tumbled the animal dead 
on the pavement. To have reached the place where dis- 
covered he must have traversed some thickly popu- 
lated sections. Daylight disclosed to him the gathering- 
crowds, and that he was in their midst. He showed 



236 Around the World in a Year 

excellent judgment in climbing to the niche, so high up 
and almost out of sight. It was his one chance of es- 
caping detection ; and if, when detected, he had under- 
stood something of the psychology of a crowd and 
dashed through the streets, uttering a few of his best 
roars on the way, I dare say room would have been 
given him in plenty. 

If you want to see elephants at work in the lumber 
yards of Burmah you should move quickly, as they are 
vanishing. Until recently they were quite generally 
used, but the portable engine has at last about suc- 
ceeded in putting the lumber-yard elephant out of 
business. We watched one of the survivors. The 
superintendent said he was eighty years old — had been 
caught in the jungle of Upper Burmah and been at work 
for twenty-five years. He pulled, pushed and placed 
great timbers with what seemed human intelligence, 
and three tons did not faze him. 

We received a very favorable impression of the Bur- 
mese. They are a sturdier race than the Hindus, and 
more advanced. They are short in stature, and in their 
physiognomy disclose their Mongolian extraction. 
Their women are treated as equals, and go about look- 
ing the world in the face. The few hotels to be found 
there are generally execrable, worse than those in 
India ; but what of that to those who can rough it, and 
who make only a short stay ! 

I fully enjoyed the four days' boat journey up the 
Irrawaddy to Mandalay. It recalled our Nile expe- 
riences, and added some new ones. There were but 
three other saloon passengers; an English magistrate 
returning to his district with his wife, and a young gov- 
ernment geologist with tents and a retinue of native 



India 



2 39 



bearers, going to spend several months in the wilds, 
mapping the country and sounding for oil. I enjoyed 
the conversation of both men. Their lines of duty 
seemed to me nearly picturesque. They dropped off at 
points below Mandalay and left me the sole occupant of 
the saloon, and the only white passenger. But it was 
not lonely. When I wanted a spectacle I had but to stroll 
around the deck where brown people of many different 
tribes were cooking, eating or sleeping. The captain, 
a big whole-souled man, and I became great chums. 
I used to like to be at his side while he was threading 
his way at night over the shoals, with many a sharp turn 
— trying for the ever-changing channel; and while 
handling his searchlight, which made boats, points of 
land and everything it rested upon look weird and 
white. I found it all very restful and managed to lay 
in a lot of sleep while 

"On the road to Mandalay, 
Where the flyin' fishes play, 
An' the dawn comes up like thunder 
Outer China 'crost the Bay!" 

That is all very pretty. Kipling is a master of sound. 
But the road I took to Mandalay, the only one I know 
of, did not meet those requirements. I saw no flying- 
fish on the Irrawaddy; and China was not then across 
any bay. I fear this is a bit captious. The poet was 
not under cross-examination, nor making a statement 
before a court of law. He was working under his 
license. I heard the point discussed several times, and 
the conclusion always was that the references must 
have been to a voyage from Calcutta, or Madras, to 



240 Around the World in a Year 

Rangoon, across the Bay of Bengal, which always turns 
up many flying fish, and China then is " 'crost the bay." 

The captain told me the channel in the Irrawaddy is 
very treacherous and continually changing; and that 
every voyage yields fresh instruction for the next. 
Unlike the Nile, where the bottom is desert sand and 
where we frequently grounded, here on the Irrawaddy 
the channel is usually much deeper but often rocky ; and 
several of the company's boats have been wrecked. 
In consequence, soundings went on the whole way up; 
and the sing-songing of the native leadsman was so con- 
tinuous, so evenly timed and monotonous, that it got on 
my nerves. I tried to get away from it — even stuffed 
my ears — but it was no use, and for a time I was in the 
fix described by Carlyle when his rest was broken by 
the barnyard cock in the early mornings. You may 
remember that he said something to the effect that it 
was not the crowing he complained of, but it was the 
waiting for the beast to begin again that disturbed 
him — my situation exactly as respected those continu- 
ous soundings until accustomed to it. 

About half the way up the river, we passed the old 
fort on the boundary between Upper Burmah and 
Lower Burmah — quite a formidable looking affair — 
by which Thebaw and his predecessors proposed to 
keep the English who held Lower Burmah out of Upper 
Burmah. But it was fortified only on the river front — 
the back being unprotected. To their surprise the in- 
considerate English rushed it from the unprotected 
side, and it fell to them like a house of cards. 

Thebaw, the last king of Burmah, will be remem- 
bered by many as a turbulent Oriental potentate, and 
one of the picturesque figures of the eighties. He 



India 



241 



played unfair with England, and was guilty of being 
found out while toying with France and Italy — bid- 
ding for an alliance. He then made open war on Eng- 




High-OIass Family and Carriage, Martdalay. 

land with the result, of course, that his country became 
a British province. Since 1886 he has been a prisoner 
of state near Bombay. An officer, whose duty required 
him to know, told me that he is allowed four hundred 
rupees a month ; that he took two of his wives with him 
into exile, and that he recently petitioned the govern- 
ment for two more, which was refused. The resources 
of the Oriental mind were not exhausted, however, for 
he then petitioned that the two he had be exchanged 
for new ones ; and, would you believe it, that was re- 
fused also. The limit of concession in such delicate 
matters had been reached. The thirty-nine articles and 
the nonconformist conscience had raised no outcry 



242 Around the World in a Year 

against the original two, but stood firm against any 
such wicked substitution. 

Those Morley letters gave out a reflex action in 
Mandalay, though not addressed there. The native 
gentleman told off by the Governor of Burmah to take 
me over that place was no ordinary guide. He had 
once held some ceremonial office at the court of King 
Thebaw, and is now the highest of the native officials in 
the Mandalay district. He gave me not only two days 
of his time but the use of his carriage and coachman 
as well. These things are mentioned only to show how 
valuable good letters may be to a traveler; and also 
the probable accuracy of the information received. 

Space will not permit more than the merest mention 
of Thebaw 's palace, the most fantastic of all the royal 
palaces I ever saw- — a mixture of the cheap and the 
enormous — shabby magnificence; nor of much else my 
guide showed me and told me. But we must line up 
in front of that giant image of Buddha in the great 
Arakan pagoda here at Mandalay. When my new 
friend and guide confided to me that it was really the 
most sacred image in Burmah — believed to have been 
moulded by Buddha himself — the statement made no 
perceptible effect upon the pulse; but when I asked him 
why it looked so swollen and badly out of proportion 
in some of its parts his explanation greatly interested 
me. The giant image is covered all over with real 
gold several inches thick, but, put on so at random, it is 
in places even much thicker. He told me that an 
average of at least three hundred rupees' (one hundred 
dollars) worth of gold-leaf, representing the votive 
offering of hundreds of Burmese from all over the 
country, was added to the image every day ; and put on 



India 245 

usually by the givers themselves ; and that they placed 
it on any part of the image they saw fit or which was 
most convenient to them, except the face. He also in- 
formed me that the richer natives sometimes donate 
and place many packages of the gold-leaf in their effort 
to wash away sins. The result of this haphazard 
gilding is that while the face retains that approved 
expressionless countenance usual to Buddhas, the 
shoulders, body, arms and hands are, in spots and 
places, bulged or swollen by the gold out of all pro- 
portion. Of the thousands of Buddhas I saw in Burmah 
this was the only one thus treated. 

I saw two native devotees, as serious looking as 
deacons, who had climbed on the image and were stick- 
ing the gold-leaf wherever most handy; and observed 
others buying the packages of gold-leaf, costing them 
two and one-half rupees — eighty cents — each, and pa- 
tiently waiting their turn to climb and dispose of them 
in like manner. The impression I was left with was akin 
to that given by the worship of the Ganges. Here was 
sacrifice not in the least cruel but frightfully costly — 
sacrifice that was monumental when the poverty of this 
people is considered. It represented a light and lead- 
ing past my comprehension. 



MADRAS 

From Eangoon to Madras was a three and a half 
days' voyage, done in fine weather and high spirits. 
On arrival I was greeted with a letter from the Gov- 
ernor's secretary inviting me to a reception to the 
Maharajah of a nearby state that evening at the Gov- 



246 



Around the World in a Year 



ernment House, and with offers of other civilities. 
Government House is 'the name given the palace of the 
Governor of a province in the East. It is usually sit- 
uated in a beautiful park, surrounded with high walls — 
with soldiers at the gates and magnificence in all 
things. The Oriental always associates pomp and 
splendor with his rulers. The Moghul Kings and Em- 
perors were conspicuous exponents of the idea, and the 
British who displaced them as rulers of those three 
hundred millions, not to be surpassed by their subjects 
— the Maharajahs, Nizams, and other native princes — 
have fairly wrapped themselves in ceremony and the 
show of power. With the Maharajahs it is gorgeous, 
with the British it is gorgeous and stately. The Gov- 
ernor of a province in India seldom rides out without 
outrunners and a showy body-guard of lancers — the 
streets being cleared and probably freshly sanded. He 




Madras Villagers. 



India 247 

is used to being conducted to some dais with a fanfare, 
there to be presented with memorials in silver cases on 
bended kuee. And every move of the Governor-Gen- 
eral, or Viceroy, is matter of circumstance. With him 
pomp is pressed to the limit. It is undoubtedly one 
of the ingredients of British success in governing 
Asiatics. 

The reception to the Maharajah was, of course, a 
grand affair. His Highness was resplendent — decked, 
as befits an Eastern Prince of the first rank, with much 
gold and many precious stones. The gold-embroidered 
confection which answered for his coat sparkled with 
diamond buttons, and his earrings were also diamonds. 
A number of rajahs and other very high-class natives 
were there richly and beautifully arrayed ; but never a 
native woman — they were safely locked in their 
zenanas. I studied the Maharajah as closely as polite- 
ness would permit and was struck, among other things, 
with his apparently contemptuous treatment of the na- 
tives who went up and made their best salaams to him. 
That he knew they were there at all was evinced only 
by the fact that he perfunctorily extended a limp hand, 
while not a word and seldom a glance was conde- 
scended. An Indian Maharajah among the natives is 
indeed the whole thing. I observed also that somewhat 
similar treatment was, in turn, meted out to him by the 
English. Many of them, after paying their profound 
respects to the Governor and his charming lady, passed 
on, taking no notice of his Asiatic Magnificence when- 
ever he was engaged and they could, without affront, 
do so. The point of cleavage seemed to be the standing 
in line for him, which they would not, at least did not 
do. Maharajahs are good enough show-pieces for a 



248 Around the World in a Year 

Durbar or a King's drawing-room, but seemingly of 
no great social consequence. They can ride their 
painted-faced elephants and will be saluted with eight- 
een guns, but socially the stiff-necked English of the 
haut monde and they have little in common. There is 
probably no lack whatever of mutual respect. Rather 
that the two civilizations in their ideals and standards 
are very wide apart. 

The following evening I had the honor to dine at the 
Government House. It being a private function noth- 
ing more will be said about it except that a full regi- 
mental band sounded from the gallery and that it was 
a truly delightful occasion. When I left Madras his 
Excellency passed me over to the Governor of the 
Straits Settlements with a personal letter, the only item 
of possible general interest in which was his asking 
that some tiger shooting be furnished — about which 
more anon. A luncheon at the home of the Inspector- 
General of Indian Railways, and a call from the only 
native judge of the High Court, were both enjoyed. 
The native judge imparted much interesting informa- 
tion on the state of the law there and of native 
feeling. He was Hindu to the core, and a very learned 
man. All these attentions of Governors, Resident, 
Prime Minister and native judge of which we were the 
recipient, resulted as may be guessed from the vise of 
the Secretary of State for India — although only one of 
the letters, I regret to say, was used. 

" Might have been," that most unprofitable combi- 
nation of words, may sometimes cover a situation worth 
mentioning. Ever since reaching India I had had a 
burning desire to go on a tiger hunt. Not that hunting 
big game had come my way often, nor that I was per- 



India 249 

fectly sure I could furnish the courage to underwrite 
such a job; but the wish to tread the skin of a tiger 
fallen to my own bullet possessed me. I had been 

1 through the Jeypore district where tigers are more 
or less common; through the Himalayan foothills 
where there are plenty, and to Upper Burmah where 

1 they are also found ; but opportunity never waited on 
wish. Here at Madras in southern India, within ten 
hours of the Mysore jungle — but compelled soon to 
leave for Ceylon — it was then or never. At the hotel 
in Madras, through a young Englishman with whom I 
made the voyage from Rangoon, I met two gentlemen 
who were, both of them, high in tiger-hunting society. 
We gave a dinner to them and, fanned by my interest, 
they told a string of tiger-killing experiences which 
for thrills surpassed any hunting stories I ever heard. 
I enjoyed myself. Both were from the Mysore district 
and both had killed dozens. One of them was going out 
with a party, which could not then be increased, the day 
following. Both in their respective territories kept 
shikaris — professional native hunters — always on the 
watch locating tigers, panther and buffalo. They were 
the nerviest pair I ever fell in with. Finding I was 
so warm — that the "call of the wild" had such fas- 
cination — each agreed to "tie up," as it is called, for 
my benefit and then and there telegraphed their 
shikaris to do so. To "tie up," you may know, is to 
tether a cow at some likely spot as a lure to the tiger 
or panther which happens that way ; and which he kills 
with a blow of his paw, breaking the neck; sucks 
the blood and retires till the next night or two when 
he calls around again for his regular feed — the flesh 
then being to his liking. The arrangement was that 



2$o Around the World in a Year 

they were to telegraph me if a " kill ' ' followed and I was 
then to go on at once. Well, I waited two days in 
Madras without getting the word and then proceeded 
by rail and ship to Colombo in Ceylon. And, would 
you believe it, about the first things which greeted my 
arrival there were two cables from the hotel pro- 




A Madras Hunt. 

prietor at Madras, repeating two telegrams received by 
him just after I had left; one announcing "Kill — pan- 
ther sure — tiger probable — come at once." The other 
"Kill — tiger — come." And there I was three days' 
hard traveling away from those two tigers which had 
thus been so carefully marked for me, as it were. 
Would not that jostle you! It was too late; "it might 
have been" that I could tread on the tail of a tiger- 
skin — of my own capture — came close — but it was not 
to be. 



India 251 

Without further repining let us turn our flashlights 
on Ceylon, which tropic island is now ours to look 
over for a while. To get there we raiied the four hun- 
dred and forty-three miles to Tuticorin and in the even- 
ing boarded a "B. I." to Colombo, which was reached 
early the following morning. On the way from Madras 
to Tuticorin we passed through the Madura district 
and a number of other points especially rich in ancient 
Hindu temples and art. Personally I would rather 
recount the mental exhilaration of a midnight tree-top 
shot at a Mysore tiger stealthily circling around his 
"kill" in the jungle below, than of any towers, arcades, 
corridors, pillars, and all else relating to any ruins — 
unless they have romantic histories as well — and the 
general reader will, I think, find excuse and perhaps 
relief, if this sketch-book is not burdened with much 
more of archeology. 



CEYLON 



Colombo on the island of Ceylon, the most important 
of the British East Indies, is at the parting of the ways 
for about all the distance travel in the Eastern Hemi- 
sphere. It corners to so 
many trade routes that 
nearly all lines call 
there going or coming 
from China, Japan or 
Australia. It is close to 
the equator, but under 
our solar topees and 
through our lorgnettes 
it seemed ever-smiling. 
We were two weeks on 
the island. I like to 
speak in moderation, 
but, just the same, it 
is one of the very 
lovely places of earth. 
Mother Nature is lav- 
ish, and if I had not seen Java I should say she 
had here reached her limit. I was credibly informed 
that a single acre sown to Guinea grass there can yield 
a hundred tons in the course of a year, and frequently 
does. That would of course require successive cut- 
tings ; but think of it — one hundred tons. Some of the 
jungle I saw was so matted and dense that an elephant 
would be lost to sight though within fifty feet of you. 




Who Said Cocoanuts? Ceylon. 




Junglees — Aborigines of Ceylon. 



Ceylon 



2 SS 



Parts of the island have a very rich fauna — elephants, 
buffalo, leopards, pythons, and also that other snake 
which, though unmolested, will jump at you — the only 
snake that will. 

The natives are good-looking, peaceful and pictur- 




Surf Boat, Ceylon. 



esque. It was the Cingalese men, this time, who caught 
m y eye. They are distinguished from the Malays and 
Tamils there, among other things, by the peculiar way 
they wear their hair. They wear it long, combed 
"straight back and caught up in a knot at the back-head, 
like a woman's. And it is topped by a rounded tor- 
toise-shell comb standing straight up, tiara fashion, 
and with hornlike points — giving a Mephisto look. 

Civilization has this people well in hand. I hear, 
though, that in a more or less inaccessible part of the 



256 



Around the World in a Year 



island — in the jungle there — there is a remnant of an 
aboriginal tribe who still live by the bow and arrow; 
and, because of their wild environs, are able to main- 
tain almost complete isolation. 

The Ceylon shore-line has so few indentations that 
the water's edge there generally means the broad ex- 




A Village Scene, Ceylon. 



panse. I consider the Gall Face Hotel at Colombo 
better placed and kept than any in India that I know 
of. It is on a bluff and within one hundred feet of the 
curling surf and deep water; and yet its sea-view is 
through waving and intervening cocoanut-palms which 
grow to the edge. 

We went up in the mountains to Kandy, the ancient 
capital now a hill station and hot-weather resort, and 
for several days enjoyed its cool air and highland 







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Ceylon 259 

beauty. The views across and around the little lake 
are indeed enchanting, and the mixture of the old 
and the new is of considerable interest. The kings of 
Kandy gave up the struggle in 1815. Till then, in their 
upper fastnesses they held out against the Dutch, 
who at that time occupied only the seacoast. Since 
then the kings of Kandy have stood for the regal- 
ridiculous — favorite characters in opera bouffe, to be 
laughed at. 

Ceylon, like Burmah, is a stronghold of Buddhism. 
There is little or nothing to say of the " Pagoda of the 
Tooth" at Kandy, where it is claimed a certain dental 
item, once a useful part of the philosopher's anatomy, 
is held; and where his footprint, deep set into the hard 
stone, is shown ; for you know I am assuming the reader 
is growing tired of pagan temples, as is the author. It 
was at Kandy we were entertained nearly a whole even- 
ing by a company of ' ' Devil-Dancers ' ' from the temple, 
in most elaborate costumes and masks. The devil got 
a bad hour and a half, and the tom-tom must have been 
near to the breaking-point, also. It is an ancient and 
semi-religious dance which is given on high festivals at 
the temple. 

The Botanical Gardens at Kandy have a wide reputa- 
tion and, among tropic gardens, I believe stand next in 
importance to those at Buitenzorg in Java. Our visit 
to the Kandy gardens was made with a friend of the 
curator, whom we also met. It was a treat to listen to 
him. Ceylon, you remember, is a spice-growing island. 
While on that head, let me add that a lady well 
reputed for veracity told me that she distinctly scented 
the cinnamon at sea — though twenty miles to leeward. 
{Some noses are better than others ; and, as some 



260 Around the World in a Year 

noses go, that does not seem to me to be at all 
unlikely. 

Good-bye ! beautiful Ceylon, with your pearl fishery, 
your precious stones and your peacefulness. Few 
places we have visited are as responsive and delighting. 
We would have gladly stopped longer. 



COLOMBO TO PENANG AND SINGAPORE 

The world has been made for those who are willing 
to take chances, but you can't fool with a "P. & 0." 
when she is ready to start. That proposition was 
learned to the quick by two first-class passengers whom 
we left behind at Colombo through their own careless- 
ness, they having taken a small boat and gone ashore 
shortly before sailing-time. We can imagine their feel- 
ings when they saw us rounding the jetty; carrying far 
away from them their luggage and perhaps all their 
money. If there was any profanity in their make-up 
the} 7 surely must have sworn for, say fifteen minutes, 
without repeating themselves. 

The voyage from Colombo to Penang and then on 
to Singapore, across the Indian Ocean and down the 
Straits of Malacca, afforded another period of com- 
plete rest lasting about a week. In the Straits we 
passed near to the northern coast of Sumatra, where 
the Dutch are waging a warfare that has lasted con- 
tinuously for thirty years against a tribe of mountain- 
eers which, thus far, they have failed to subjugate. It 
is hinted that there is no particular anxiety to wind 
up the affair; since how then could the Dutch army 
and navy be employed — and how about promotions ? 

At Penang the heat was very trying. One of the 
passengers had a sun-seizure and the doctor said that 
for a time he did not expect him to recover. We 
stopped there only three hours — time enough to take 
a carriage and guide and have a hurried look. The 

261 



262 Around the World in a Year 

population is principally Malay, but most of the prop- 
erty is held by Chinese, the superior race. The Euro- 
pean quarter looked familiar — ample, clean and beauti- 
ful. Situations vary and so do the dress, color and 
type of native, but European quarters are much alike. 

At Penang we were half-way around the world. 
Longitudinally New York and Penang are antipodean. 
We were standing feet to feet, as it were, with our 
friends at home. We could insist they were under- 
neath and they could reasonably make the same asser- 
tion of us. One or other of us would seem to be 
dangling by the heels and entitled to a bad headache — 
but the Creator has looked out for that. 

In Singapore an answering cable was received from 
Paris which relieved my anxiety. Family letters had 
been delayed for weeks — become gorged somewhere on 
the lengthening line of communication. Singapore, the 
chief of the Straits Settlements, is within sixty miles 
of the line, and pretty full of Chinese. I am beginning 
to recast my ideas as to them. Those we see in America 
are far below the average. Most of them here in the 
East are open-faced, sturdy, active people ; and I hear 
it continually said that they are industrious and faith- 
ful and that there are many successful business men 
among them. 

I watched a lot of barefooted Malay boys playing 
football and wondered how their big toes were hinged. 
Just fancy the stubbing your toe would get, if unpro- 
tected like theirs, in sending a full-sized football. It 
makes me think of the funny-bone, crick in the neck and 
such fitful things. I have seen that barefooted game 
played before, in Burmah and India. 

We tarried in Singapore a few days. While there I 



Colombo to Penang and Singapore 263 

had the honor of dining with Sir John Anderson, the 
Governor of the Straits Settlements, and received 
some encouragement for that fervently wished-f or tiger 
hunt. But the prospect is not distinctly roseate, for 
the tigers hereabouts are mostly in the Johore jungles, 
and the Sultan of Johore, as I learned after reaching 
Singapore, insists upon his tigers getting an even 
chance — the hunter must go after him on the level and 
cannot wait for him in a tree, as in India. In conse- 
quence, my zest for that skin was measurably reduced ; 
but the Governor very kindly agreed to try to arrange 
for a hunt on my return from Java — whence I go from 
here — and I agreed with myself to muster sufficient 
courage for a hunt, Johore fashion, by that time — if 
possible. 

We spent a day at Johore, which is the native state to 
the north of Singapore, reached by taking first the rail 
and then a boat. I did not attempt to deliver a letter 
I carried to the Sultan of Johore, for after learning of 
the equal rights accorded his tigers my personal inter- 
est in him weakened. I preferred that the matter 
should be held in abeyance, awaiting the Governor's 
efforts — and to learn what sort of bomb-proofs or 
claw-shields went with his outfit. The palace and the 
open-air Chinese theatre at Johore were in a measure 
attractive, but neither of them was as alluring to me 
as the "Gambling Farm," so called, where I found the 
life of the place was centred. The Chinese are most 
inveterate gamblers. It is one of the strongest of their 
national traits. Driven out of Singapore, as they are, 
the gamblers congregate at the tables at Johore — and it 
is said the Sultan maintains his palace and state mainly 
from the proceeds of these tables. I believe the name 



264 Around the World in a Year 

comes from the fact that the right to keep a gambling- 
place there is let or farmed out to the highest bidder. 
The farm was crowded with Chinese, men and women, 
who were wrestling with chance. To watch them, was 
an interesting study in physiognomy and in play of 
features. Ah Sin was there— not a poetic fancy, but 
a type. The perfect poker-face was seen on all sides. 
Whether I played there or stood aloof is a matter either 
of conscience or coin, and therefore of no general inter- 
est. The world is not much concerned in private griefs, 
anyway. . 

Singapore is but a degree north of the line, as was 
intimated, and in going south from there to Java, as 
we did, of course it was crossed. I had to recall the 
story of some one who in that neighborhood asked the 
captain why the engines had been stopped, and was 
told that they were crossing the line and did not want 
to bump it. Captains are very top-lofty on occasion, 
as we ourselves have seen. 



JAVA 

I was landed in Java in bad order, weak and dizzy 
from a three days' struggle with rough seas, and with 
what was thought to be a bad case of heat-rash — and 
it was raining hard. The cockle-shell of a cargo boat 
which carried me from Singapore had been a plaything 
for the swells from the China Sea, and each and every 
of its three passengers was dreadfully knocked out, as 
also were some of the crew. The Malay boy who served 
me on deck had once to hurry to the rail on his own 
account, between courses. It was not appetizing. The 
rain was also easily accounted for, it being Java's rainy 
season. Matters and things were at a really low ebb 
with our expedition, and I am sure my opinion at the 
time on travel in general was of little worth. Reaction 
did not set in until about the third day, when I left 
Batavia, the capital of the Dutch East Indies and our 
port of entry, for a look at the interior. Then it was 
that interest was revived, for the exceeding beauty of 
Java was forced upon me. 

The East and the West have been together in Java 
for nearly three hundred years. The island supports 
an enormous population — the densest on earth — six 
hundred to the acre. Its thirty millions are a living 
and unanswerable proof of its extreme fertility. The 
tropics are not only warming, but filling. My observa- 
tion leads me to say that there is scarcely any poverty 
in the tropics, as we understand it ; for with us poverty 
means hunger and suffering. The hopeless, gaunt and 

265 



266 



Around the World in a Year 



anaemic face such as the London Eastender's is not 
often seen in the Orient. 

We went for about ten days into the interior; first 
to Buitenzorg, where is the great botanical garden, 
and then as far as Garoet, a day's journey beyond 
Buitenzorg, through lovely landscapes. I should sup- 
pose an artist would revel at every turn there. At 
Graroet we turned and debouched into the back country 
districts, going to the hot springs at Tjpanas and to the 
lake of Sitoe Bagendot. While rickshawing through 
the rice swamps many of the country people took off 
their hats and some, in a fawning obeisance, crouched 
nearly to their haunches on the side of the road as 
we passed. I had heard of that custom, but had not 
seen it before except in Upper Burmah. It affected 
me unpleasantly. I went out on the beautiful and ex- 
tensive lake, seated comfortably on a bamboo platform 




A Scene in Buitenzorg, Java. 



Java 267 

which rested upon and connected two dugouts that 
were manned by three women and a man. He was 
there to keep order. On the lake people were fishing 
with queer long-handled traps like inverted umbrellas. 
They would drop overboard to the bottom, remaining 
under long enough to fasten the trap whenever, to 
their fine touch, it acted as if performing its mission. 
Limited descriptive powers balk at those Javanese fish- 
traps. 

A strange thing happened only a short time before 
we reached Java, at Boli, a good-sized island, the one 
next east of Java. It had been treated as a native 
state, with native rulers of the ancient line, but under 
Dutch supremacy. The Sultan of Boli rebelled, being 
foolish enough to suppose he could throw off the Dutch 
yoke. About six months ago the punitive expedition 
reached there and the fighting forces of the islanders 
fell back on their ancient capital, a walled city, with 
walls nine feet thick. The Dutch followed leisurely, 
preferring to await events rather than hurry them — 
considering the thickness of the walls. Just as they 
were ready to strike they were amazed to see one of 
the gates open and the Sultan emerge, sitting in his 
golden chair and followed by his wives and his chil- 
dren and a goodly number of relatives, headmen and re- 
tainers, with their wives and children; and all advance 
towards them. As their make-up, numbers and actions 
denoted surrender, they were allowed to advance. 
When they had drawn close — within speaking distance 
— each and every one of them, from the Sultan to the 
youngest woman and child among them, stabbed him- 
self or herself to death. The bloody sight is said to 
have been too much for Dutch stomachs, and many 



268 



Around the World in a Year 



sickened at it. At least two hundred and fifty com- 
mitted this concerted suicide, and, before their con- 
querors realized their intention, were stretched dead 
upon the ground. This is not yellow fictiou. These 
tragical details were told me by one of the very few 
American residents in Java, and also by a Dutch naval 




Batik Working — Patterning with Wax, Javt 



officer with whom I traveled; and furthermore they 
are matters of common information there. We may 
call it savagery, fanaticism or what we like, but such 
wholesale self-immolation shows that even under the 
equator the human animal is capable of resolution 
which makes him prefer death to defeat. The golden 
chair is now in the Java museum ; and the Sultanate of 
Boli — I don't know what its status has become, but 
suspect it has been taken over — assimilated. 



Java 269 

We found living was cheap in Java. The only reason 
for this is that tourists have not yet spoiled it. It 
was the rainy season certain enough, for it poured hard 
and long every day — producing a rusty, soppy condi- 
tion of everything. The big hats — like inverted basins 
— worn by the Chinese serve well their double purpose 
of protection from both sun and rain, as the case re- 
quired. 

The piazzas of the hotel at Buitenzorg overlooked a 
beautiful mountain stream, swift and deep, which bends 
a few rods away and a hundred feet below. It seemed 
to be a favorite bathing-place for women, and oftener 
than not they might have been seen there at their bath 
by any one who did not take unusual pains to avoid 
the view. A distinguished gentleman occupied the ad- 
joining piazza. We were the only guests. At first 
it was a shock, but we were within our rights and of 
course we could not move the hotel back. 

We learned it was a custom of the country ; showing 
the simplicity rather than the ignorance of this semi- 
civilized people. The celerity with which, while stand- 
ing in the water, they divested themselves of their only 
garment without wetting it, sending it overhead and on 
the bank in one time and two motions, as the military 
man would say, dropping into deeper water the while, 
would make you blink. It probably measured with 
exactness the quantity of civilization which these chil- 
dren of nature have thus far imbibed. 

In wandering over Java I became acquainted with 
the brother of the Governor of Hong Kong, who at the 
time was also there. It was a chance acquaintance, 
but an exceedingly pleasant and, as it turned out, 
valuable one. The name of the Governor's brother, or 



270 Around the World in a Year 

his titles to honor, need not be mentioned; he only 
comes into the narrative because, through his good 
offices, two weeks of our fast-shortening vacation were 
saved. The way of it was this. Hong Kong was our 
objective. The ship from Java back to Singapore 
which we were compelled to take was not due to arrive 
there until the day after the advertised sailing of the 
next ''P. & 0." from Singapore to Hong Kong, on 
which I was booked. It looked as if I should soon have 
to choose between waiting two weeks in Singapore for 
the next and the loss of the passage-money— with a wait 
of three days for a ship of another line. There was 
the predicament. How did it eventuate? Why, the 
Governor of Hong Kong and his party were our fellow- 
passengers on the ship from Java, and they were in a 
hurry. To accommodate them the Java boat was 
speeded and the "P. & 0." was delayed, they con- 
nected, and there you are. Simple enough. Being in- 
troduced to the Governor by my new friend, his 
brother, who made certain requests, I was allowed to 
go in the Governor's party on the admiral's launch, 
which met the Java boat while still on her course and 
transferred them and me, at once, to the waiting " P. & 
0." that had intercepted us. Here was proof of how 
highly favored are the great of the earth; and, in- 
cidentally, of the value of basking in reflected light. 
Greatness in a hurry, did it. Long before the, shall I 
say ordinary, passengers from Java were landed at 
Singapore, our ship to Hong Kong was well on her way 
there. 

Of course a wait in Singapore might have been much 
enlivened by one of those level, or rather, dead-level 
sort of hunts in Johore — which by that time may have 



Java 271 

been arranged for me. But, to be quite frank, that 
amount of concentrated dissipation had lost its savor — ■ 
so to speak. 

Our way to Hong Kong was through the Straits of 
Formosa. We had there the island of Formosa on one 
side and the mountains of that almost unknown part of 
the Chinese mainland on the other. 



HONG KONG 

Hong Kong was ceded to Great Britain in 1842 and 
is now a crown colony and naval station. It is on an 
island of the same name, is essentially European and 
is the furthest east of that great chain of outlying 
British ports which begin with Gibraltar — and there- 
fore, for some reasons, the most important. Its fine 
harbor is comparable with the Golden Gate, or rather, 
with that of San Francisco. The Governor of Hong 
Kong told me that, tonnage of ships considered, it is 
the greatest port in the world. That, though, is only 
because it is the terminus of a number of important 
lines, the "Pacific Mail," the "P. & 0." and others— 
which call also at other ports and depend mainly upon 
them. Of course it is not size of ships but rather size of 
freights handled which indicates the business of a port. 

Its chief import is India grown opium. That of 
itself indicates the size of the opium trade there find- 
ing a distributing point. Much opprobrium has been 
heaped upon the Indian government because of the 
trade in opium with China ; and it and the Chinese im- 
perial authorities have recently conferred together 
with the view, ostensibly, of stopping the trade. There 
is a fresh-made Chinese edict out against it which, if 
effectual, will reduce the trade at once and extinguish 
it after ten years. This is not the first time China has 
been moved to take such action, and radical results are 
not anticipated. It is a question not wholly free from 
difficulty. On the one side calamitous physical and 



Hong Kong 273 

moral effects of its use are urged; ou the other that 
it is an ancient industry and therefore, like ancient cus- 
tom, should not be officially disturbed. And further, 
that its bad effects are exaggerated and not to be coin- 
pared with that of alcoholic drink — trade in which is 
perfectly legitimate nearly all over the civilized world. 

The "Devanha," which carried us to Hong Kong, 
went on to Japan to convey the Mikado's nephew to 
London, where he goes to visit King Edward and also, 
I opine, to punctuate that Anglo-Japanese alliance. 



CANTON 

It is only one night's run up the Canton River from 
Hong-Kong to Canton, and the traveler in Hong Kong 
who does not take it makes a mistake. 

The first thing that strikes the "foreign devil" in 
Canton is its smells; and, while they may change or 
intensify in neighborhoods, they never desert him dur- 
ing any part of his stay in the place. I am not going to 
give up space to the smells of Canton, for we have the 
execution grounds, another unpleasant topic, to assim- 
ilate; but must say that for smells that offend, for 
variegated stench, the arome de Canton is easily first — 
Smyrna and Constantinople to the contrary notwith- 
standing. We regarded Canton as the most interesting 
city we had visited and our sketch-book must be 
stretched for it a bit. It is the capital of a great prov- 
ince and the abiding-place of two millions of the chil- 
dren of men. Though only about a hundred miles in- 
land from Hong Kong there is no railroad connection 
and it is said to be a genuine piece of old China — China 
of the Chinese. It surely must be, for while we were 
searching it from centre to circumference and our 
palanquin bearers were threading their way for hours 
through its apparently endless alleys we saw none but 
Chinese — not a white man, nor even our exceedingly 
numerous friend, the Hindu. There may be some white 
people there, some missionaries perhaps, but among the 
scores of thousands whom we saw all were yellow and 
moon-eyed. It is one of the cheapest labor markets in 

274 



Canton 275 

the world, and besides, foreigners are not welcomed 
there — two reasons why the population is so unmixed. 
We were treated to evidences of that lack of welcome. 
Several hisses were hurled at us and at least one hostile 
gesture — this, though we were very careful to mind 
our own business. It was at the time when the boycott 
on American goods was at its height. If we had not 
been in company of a well-known native guide I am sure 
there would have been trouble. 

After the smells, the next thing that struck us in 
Canton was its thronging multitudes. Unlike London 
or New York, where great crowds are seen only in cer- 
tain parts, with neighborhoods relatively quiet, the 
whole city is one vast huddle. 

Seeing so many women in Canton hobbling about on 
their ridiculously small feet — the bound feet — I went 
to some trouble to find out what proportion of the 
women of China is subject to that cruel custom; and 
have authority for believing that it is over a half — the 
majority of them. It is a badge of respectability, and it 
seems that nearly all the women of fashion or of good 
class — except those in the seaport cities — have bound 
feet, and are thus disfigured. Two years ago the Em- 
press issued some sort of ukase against it ; but, so far, 
and naturally enough, it has had little apparent result. 
But such high condemnation is quite likely to conduce to 
the benefit of the rising generation and of those yet 
to be, and with brother Jasper we must agree "the 
sun do move." But a ukase against a nation of crip- 
ples dispenses no cure to the cripples themselves — 
withered feet can make no response. 

I believe this torturing practice is but one more 
proof that in most parts of the East woman is still re- 



276 Around the World in a Year 

garded as a chattel, as she always has been. Fashion 
and vanity may now bolster up the custom, as with the 
nose rings of the Soudan and Tamil women, but the 
thought accountable for the bound foot was originally, 
in all likelihood, to disable her — to so hobble her that 
she could not run away. What can the poor thing do 
towards getting about, with a tread of less than five 
inches and feet singularly like a sheep's! 

Of all the strange sights and things seen by us in 
Canton that which impressed me most was the place of 
execution. A little clearing in the vast huddle, open- 
ing out of a back alley and, as I recall it, less than an 
acre in size — remarkable, when not in action, for noth- 
ing except a number of gibbets and crosses which are 
strewn about. Yet right there probably more human 
blood has been shed than on any place of its size in the 
world. Tower Hill, Tyburn, Smithfield and the place 
of the guillotine all sink into insignificance in the grue- 
some comparison and few, if any, battlefields have car- 
ried such carnage. As long as Canton has been known 
it has been the place for the infliction of capital pun- 
ishment. About three hundred heads are there struck 
off every year; piracy or politics being, for most of 
them, the moving cause of their undoing. About twenty 
murderers go to their death there every year, and their 
punishment is even more dreadful, for they are crucified 
— hacked to death while transfixed to a cross. While 
we in America choose the most humane and instant of 
deaths for the murderer who has sifted through our 
jury system and appellate courts — calling on the light- 
nings to do the work — they in China adopt that crudest 
of deaths. But to return to the execution ground. They 
say, and it seems to be well founded, that when Li 



Canton 277 

Hung Chang was Governor of the Canton province ten 
thousand were decapitated right there during the 
first eight months of his holding the office. His great 
reputation as an administrator was made there; for it 
rested upon the fact that in this way he rid the country 
of most of the pirates with which it had been infested, 
and brought about peace and quiet. In a measure it 
was the quiet of the grave. A mandarin of the Pea- 
cock Feather is certainly no mere figure of speech. 

AVe were treated to a sight of the principal execu- 
tioner; a powerful brutish fellow, who at the beck of 
our guide, and for some promised coin, came out of his 
home — a nearby hovel — and showed us how he does the 
bloody work. An imaginary kneeling figure with pin- 
ioned arms and outstretched head was enacted, and his 
head taken off with a single swish of the cleaver. In 
answer to an inquiry through our interpreter, we 
were instructed that sometimes a second or even a third 
swing is required. The ground was badly stained with 
the blood from the execution of the day before. I trust 
my squeamish readers will pardon these particulars. 
If they would know China they must take the execution 
ground at Canton into the view. The sights with which 
you are confronted in a journey round the world arc 
not all of the madonna of the wild-flower order. 

Canton is semi-tropical, and a temperature ap- 
proaching frost is almost unknown. Our guide told us 
of a sleet and hail storm, lasting only a few minutes, 
which visited the place fourteen years ago and which 
so surprised the people that many rushed out with 
pails and buckets and picked up the hail-stones — think- 
ing to preserve them as curiosities. How they would 
crowd the plate of American ice cream that should 



278 Around the World in a Year 

happen among them. But that sleet and hail storm was 
not wholly a joke, for, the story continues, a number of 
beggars were found frozen to death from the effects 
of it. The south softens and makes tender. . 

Another thing which excited our curiosity while in 
Canton was the entire absence of carts and carriages. 
Not a single wheeled vehicle was seen there anywhere. 
Not even a rickshaw. Nor was there a beast of burden 
of any kind except a single saddle horse, though much 
lifting and carrying was going on. This peculiarity 
has been forced upon our notice all over the East, but 
nowhere else has the entire absence of wheeled vehicles 
been observed. Everything in Canton is carried from 
the shoulder. Each of us was swung in a palanquin 
on the shoulders of four big, half-naked coolies. Labor 
there is cheap and clamorous. In India and in Egypt 
the weight is almost invariably carried on the head; 
in China almost invariably from the shoulder. The 
past has had something like a strangle hold on these 
people, and the dead hand is still very potent with 
them. But "bound feet" are going out and wheeled 
vehicles and machinery sooner or later must be ac- 
cepted. What an awakening and an advancement con- 
fronts China and its four hundred millions ! No won- 
der the commercial nations are so nervously sparring 
for the opening. 

The river sights at Canton also made us stare. Thou- 
sands there make their homes on the sampans — are 
born, raised and live their whole lives upon them. A 
sampan, you may know, is the Chinese small-boat, usu- 
ally covered and without sail. Nearly every sampan is 
a workshop and home for some poor family, with the 
women and children as often as not at the oars or the 



Canton 279 

scull. It is a home and a means for sustaining it — 
fishing and carrying being the main prospect, and 
ground rent unknown. It is no exaggeration to say 
that the Canton River swarms with them, and that 
the stretches where they make rendezvous are lined 
twenty or more deep with them. This sampan life is 
a peculiarity of Canton, as I hear it is of the other 
Chinese river centres — though we have noticed much 
of it in the treaty ports and the East Indies. They 
keep together at night in such numbers for safety, on 
account of the many pirates who even now move over 
the face of those waters. Chinese war junks patrol 
the river for the avowed purpose of putting down 
piracy; but I will not say what I was given to under- 
stand about those war junks as pirate catchers, for no 
certificate went with it. The fact is, though, the sam- 
pan family which is caught off its base at night or is 
segregated at all is in danger. I heard it explained that 
it is almost impossible to stamp out the Chinese variety 
of river piracy, as it defies detection; that dead men, or 
those put by the pirates in fear of death, tell few tales ; 
and further, that the whole sampan community is 
under some degree of suspicion, as the least likely may 
only be waiting an opportunity — that many a pirate is 
nursed among those who nestle closest. 

Those Chinese junks are queer-looking craft, with 
their square sails made of matting and ribbed with bam- 
boo, and their low-lying bows and elevated sterns which 
make them look as if always going backwards. I saw 
many of them before I could know whether they were 
coming or going. Shipbuilding has not advanced with 
them beyond the other arts. 

At the food-sellers' bits and dabs were seen which de- 



280 Around the World in a Year 

fied recognition. I have no doubt some of our readers 
would be disgusted enough if we knew, aud told. Most 
of it was almost dirt cheap and to be had in quantity 
for a single copper, but I should expect a well-bred dog- 
to gag at it. The fish was among the few things famil- 
iar to us, and that was being sold either in a dried and 
more or less decayed state, or else alive and right from 
the shallow basins in which it was swimniing-^-often- 
times limp and evidently near to the final wiggle. No, 
you would find but little appetite or material to appease 
it in Canton and its smells. But in the bazaars you 
would see ivory carvings, and mandarin coats, and silks, 
and rice pictures, and fans, and curios until you would 
have to stop and balance your cash to avoid strand- 
ing, and then go on again considering afresh whether 
a reasonable amount of smuggling — which was not 
found out — against the American high tariff was, in- 
deed, any crime. 

What impressed me most of all was the life of Canton 
— the wriggling, swirling masses of people, and the ac- 
tivities of the people. Its lack of open spaces or quiet 
neighborhoods makes of the city one great bazaar 
where every stall is both workshop and home. Two 
millions count more when all live in small quarters on 
the edge of the narrow alleys they crowd. Canton is all 
city; it has no suburbs. How they all get three meals 
a day is what bothers me — as it probably does very 
many of them. One thing at least was apparent : they 
are an industrious people. Everybody was either fight- 
ing or on guard. You can get out of the noise and the 
crowds of London or New York, often by turning a 
corner; but Canton is incessant — at once the most in- 
teresting and tiring place we visited. 



Canton 281 

I tried for some insight into the basic character of 
this people, who comprise over a fourth of the whole 
human family; and was glad to get the views of a cer- 
tain level-headed man of affairs who has lived thirty- 
three years in China — views expressed by others and 
coinciding with my own observation. He told me that 
as a people their dominant characteristic was cheer- 
fulness; that they were industrious and honest, but 
affection has no place with them; that though faithful 
while in employ they would leave a good master on a 
moment's notice, regardless of his convenience; and 
that if treated with more than ordinary kindness they 
will take advantage of it, as they have no heart affec- 
tion. And further, that they hold foreigners generally 
in what approaches a lofty contempt. But he liked 
them, for all that. 

Who will say that our visit to Canton was not fruit- 
ful of interest? 



MACAO 

We went for a day only to Macao, which is on an 
island not far from Hong Kong; a place that is 
naturally picturesque and which has a population of 
seventy thousand. It has been under the control of 




A Three-Handed Freezeout, Macao. 

Portugal for three hundred and fifty years and is richly 
situated, but does not grow. Apart from the fishing its 
principal industry is, probably, gambling. The Hong 
Kong gamblers, both Chinese and European, find there 
an open door. Macao is exploited for the benefit of 
the home government. If Portugal, which takes to 
itself the revenues and taxes, including the receipts 

282 



Macao 283 

from the opium-joints and gambling farms — the latter 
alone amounted last year to three hundred and ninety- 
seven thousand dollars (Mex.) — would expend it upon 
the harbor and streets the place would be less stagnant 
and unkempt. Macao is an object lesson. The Portu- 
guese, greatest of discoverers, are certainly poor colo- 
nizers — if their Macao is a fair example. 



SHANGHAI 

All is going well with the expedition, but "Move 
on!" is the order. The eight hundred and eighteen 
miles ' run from Hong Kong to Shanghai is almost due 
north, and by the time we reached there we were con- 
firmed three-blanket-men. It was their midwinter, and 
on the way we doffed our solar topees and white cottons 
and prepared to face the bleak and steely north. We 
find that it is these sea voyages wherein the health- 
seeker gets most benefit, and where the lasting acquaint- 
ances are made. To have leaned over the same rail 
together, weathered. the same storms and faced the 
same dangers, is one of the surest foundations for 
pleasant acquaintance. 

Shanghai is said to have been on the sea, but it is 
now fifteen miles inland — the low, sandy shore lines 
thereabout having shifted to that remarkable extent. 
Our twenty-six thousand tons, the "Mongolia," was at 
a disadvantage, and had to anchor outside while those 
fifteen miles were entrusted to a tender. Shanghai is 
a treaty port, ruled by international agreement. The 
consuls of the Powers there are supreme until they dis- 
agree, and then the ministers of the same Powers at 
Pekin are invoked. At first thought this may seem 
somewhat complicated, but considering that the terri- 
tory is a cutting from China, and the jealousy of the 
Powers — all wanting as soon as any gets — perhaps it 
is the best that is possible. The governing nations have 
their own concessions, all of which adjoin and make up 

2S4 



Shanghai 285 

the extensive European quarter. Apart from the Euro- 
peans—all of them exotics, looking for fortune and 
"home" — Shanghai is all Chinese. The Hindus and 
Malaysians, our very constant companions for a long 
time, are now clean gone from the scene — left 'behind. 
Chinese cheap labor, dreaded by richer nations, is its 
own sufficient protection. 

Shanghai has become a refuge for rich Chinamen 
from the interior. Many of them have gone there to 
live to escape that risk of pillage, and even torture, by 
the mandarins which faces all who are under their sway 
having property, and who are not sufficiently pliable. 

I was astonished at the evidences of Japan's grow- 
ing foreign trade. Three big ships flying her flag were 
making out of the Shanghai River while we were run- 
ning up. Japan has certainly learned how. 



JAPAN 

We left Shanghai for Japan with bags and carryalls 
bulging with curios that had been gathered at the dif- 
ferent bazaars, and there were several shipments to fol- 
low—having distributed of our limited means as if there 
were no such things as custom-houses or a hereafter. 
In going the four hundred and fifty-one miles to Naga- 
saki we crossed the track of the ill-fated Kussian fleet, 
and went to within fifty miles of the scene of the great 
sea fight — perhaps the most momentous and decisive in 
history. And just where the Japanese fleet lay in wait 
— couchant and ready to spring — during those months 
when even its whereabouts were so profoundly secret, 
was pointed out to us and duly considered. Peaceful 
waters, island-studded and washing a lovely land- 
scape; exemplifying the place "where every prospect 
pleases," but where man is correspondingly wicked. 

Now for that glimpse of Japan which we got. We 
were surprised at the cold and cheerless interiors of 
Japanese houses, even the tea-houses. The snow lay on 
the ground and it was bleak as December, yet, speak- 
ing generally, their homes were all unheated, with never 
a stove or open fireplace. Their nearest approach to a 
heater is the kotatsn, a petty receptacle for a few em- 
bers or pieces of charcoal — all told, about big enough to 
heat a lady's curling iron. With it they manage to 
keep their fingers warm and limber while at their work 
— which is usually of a kind that tries not only their 
sight but their dexterity of hand. The interiors were 

286 



Japan 287 

cheerless, for excepting the usual cocoa matting upon 
the floor, an occasional screen, some little floor cushions 
and the (to us) ridiculously inadequate kotatsu, they 
are unfurnished — without chairs or tables, other than 
little stools which serve as tables when placed before 
the family or friends wherever they happen to be squat- 
ting on the floor. Windows and doors are curtainless, 
and beds, as we understand them, are very rare. A 
quilt laid upon the matting serves as bed and bedding. 
And, adding to the cheerlessness, there is no view to be 
had through windows ; since, in lieu of glass, the sashes 
are set with a peculiar opaque paper which lets in and 
softens the light, preserves privacy and I suppose 
"keeps out the coarsest of the cold"— as Artemus 
Ward once said of a glassless sash. That Japanese 
hospitality which we must believe in, so often do we 
hear of it, certainly has a most uncomfortable setting. 
Notwithstanding the emptiness with which the Japa- 
nese homes are filled you must always remove your 
shoes and put on their cotton slippers before stepping 
from the threshold to the matting, which is kept scru- 
pulously clean. The rule as to slippers we found ap- 
plied also to their temples. 

One thing any one who has traveled in Japan can 
say without fear of contradiction is that its chief glory 
is its women — I don't mean the Geishas only, but its 
women. Japanese men, usually mentally and physi- 
cally sturdy, facially are unhandsome and harsh; but 
Japanese women, sturdy enough, are evidently the em- 
bodiment of amiability and cheerfulness; qualities 
which are reflected in their honest, cherubic faces. 
Their complexions are unsurpassed and they have a 
luxuriance of coal-black hair most carefully and aston- 



288 Around the World in a Year 

i shingly arranged. It is wonderful how much alike 
in their appearance are the women of Japan, until you 
recall that up to only seventy years ago theirs was a 
hermit-country with scarcely any foreign population, 
and that of course the race remained almost unmixed — 
and, like the Chinese, acquired a degree of fixity of 
appearance, figure and mien. The men also look very 
much alike, but no other race we have studied shows 
so marked a difference in the physiognomy and facial 
expression between its men and its women. I imagine 
the Japanese woman has acquired her happy counte- 
nance as a result of centuries of kind treatment. While 
not granted the same marked or ceremonious distinction 
as in Europe, she is treated in a way as an equal, the 
equality that exists between a parent and child — - 
coupled with obedience. With her children, her market- 
ing, her gossiping and her devotions she appears to be 
let alone. That fact brings to mind what to us Westerns 
is a curious phenomenon; namely, that in all Eastern 
countries the sexes, as such, outwardly appear to pay 
little or no attention to each other. In Egypt and India 
a woman of the upper class is seldom seen and always 
closely hooded ; and the man regards himself as a vastly 
superior being and her as a soulless chattel, unfitted for 
any kind of education. But in Burmah and Japan — 
the great centres of Buddhism — they are not afraid to 
have their women looked at and in that parental fashion 
they treat them as equals. Under both systems though, 
and in all those countries, each sex, as such, outwardly 
appears to take little or no heed of the presence of the 
other ; and courting or any coquetry among the natives 
is very seldom seen. Those myriad couples — hand in 
hand, absorbed in each other and unmindful of the 



Japan 



289 



public gaze — in evidence everywhere in the Occident 
are rarities in the East. It would seem to be an ac- 
complishment, or rather accompaniment, of our kind 
of civilization. 

As show-pieces and living pictures the children of 
Japan are next only to its women — bareheaded little 




In Transitu, Japan. 



Orientals looking as if they came out of those rice- 
paper drawings which at home we had considered only 
caricatures. We liked to watch them in their mili- 
tary drill, performed with much vim and precision and 
which is an important part of their daily work at all 
the schools. Husky little men, clattering around in 
their impossible stilted wooden sandals — it is easy to 
imagine them continuing the traditions of their soldier 
sires. 



290 Around the World in a Year 

We went to Kyoto, in the interior, which for centu- 
ries was the capital city of Japan, and the place of resi- 
dence of the Mikado. Of its population of three hun- 
dred and fifty thousand only thirty-five are Europeans, 
and the most of them are missionaries. With three 
others I was the only European or American at the 
hotel, and, although I spent most of the four days there 
rickshawing in all directions, I only met two Europeans 
on the wa}^. It was winter in Japan. 

If the Mikado is a student of history or has a good 
memory he must have an abiding affection for the 
United States, for it was the coming of Commodore 
Perry in 1852 that opened the country to American 
commerce, and, incidentally, broke up the Shogun des- 
potism and released the Mikado. For a very long 
period the Shogun succession, with the dependent 
damios, had ruled the country from Yedo; and the 
Mikado was reduced to the level of a sacred image and, 
practically, imprisoned in the palace at Kyoto. His 
face was never seen by the people; as it was the 
popular idea that he who looked upon his face would 
be blinded by its effulgence and his own effrontery. 
The Mikado never rode out showing more than the 
lower half of his body, and at its approach all abased 
themselves. That was the situation in Japan until the 
latter half of the nineteenth century when she sprang 
into the light and began her great advance. 

We looked at the outside of the palace at Kyoto with- 
out feeling any need of smoked glasses, but, as we were 
not then supplied with the necessary pasteboard from 
the ambassador, we were not allowed to gaze at the in- 
side. We consoled ourselves with a sight of the Mikado 's 
palanquin and the royal audience-seat of those days, 



Japan 



291 



built on the effulgence plan, both of which are now in 
the museum there — so far removed are those very 
recent times from the Japan of to-day. 

If salary and rate of wages measured the health and 
happiness or the efficiency of a people, then would 
Japan be very far behind in those most important 
respects. Excepting the Prime Minister, no office- 
holder in Japan receives a salary higher than three 
thousand dollars a year. The Admiral of the Navy — 
Togo by name and fame — is allowed that much ; the Com- 
manding General of the Army receives the munificent 
salary of just fifteen hundred dollars, and the pay 
of a professor at the Imperial University at Tokyo 
is only eight hundred dollars a year. But the force of 
these figures cannot be seen until the wages of the 
laboring masses are considered. They have been going 
up, and now are not so low as in India. But, withal, a 




Pounding Rice, Japan. 



292 Around the World in a Year 

Japanese policeman receives only three dollars a month 
— say, ten cents a day — for all he can do; and he be- 
longs to a force which is centralized in Tokyo and of 
which the nation may well be proud. His pay is an 
indication of what labor in the rough is worth in that 
country. No! rate of wages does not measure a 
people's health or happiness, else would wage-earners 
in America be at least thirty times as healthy and 
happy as those in Japan ; and, man for man, the intel- 
ligent traveler must admit that they do not look to be 
even their equals in either particular. The American 
wage-earner must pay at least thirty times as much for 
his lodgings and at least twenty times as much for his 
subsistence. To be sure, the residuum would represent 
more book-learning, more ribbons, more beer ; and per- 
haps more room and recreation. Western civilization 
corrects some abuses and develops others; it also 
complicates life and brings envy and unrest. If healthy 
and happy countenances are good indications of what 
men get out of life, then you have my word for it that 
the coolies of India, China and Japan win; and those 
of Burmah, Ceylon and Java are away ahead. This 
is not the language of a pessimist. My readers will 
not say that. It is an opinion gained from close ob- 
servation during our stay in those countries. 

Of the Japanese cities visited, Kyoto was the most 
interesting. Its landscape gardens, its temple where 
the Russian officers were imprisoned ; that other temple 
with the thousand and one life-size gilded Buddhas, and 
the palace and the workshops waked even our jaded 
sensibilities. But what made the place most interest- 
ing was the crowding Japanese life — with scarcely an 
incongruous European except ourselves. 



Japan 293 

Some mention of the Heigashi Hongwanji at Kyoto 
may not be amiss in this sketch-book. It is the largest 
of the Japanese temples and was completed a dozen 
years ago upon an ancient foundation, its predecessor 
having been burned thirty years previously. Like 
most of their temples, it is constructed almost entirely 
of wood. The rebuilding seems to have been truly a 
national effort, every province contributing its quota 
of material and money, which it is estimated equaled 
five million yen. The main building covers consider- 
ably more than an acre, is one hundred and twenty- 
six feet high, and it is a curious fact that its pillars and 
beams were lifted into place by cables made entirely of 
human hair. So great and widespread was the en- 
thusiasm which swept that people in the rebuilding of 
this their most sacred fane that the women of each 
province contributed a hawser made of their own hair 
— thirteen inches in circumference ; in all, two hundred 
and twenty-eight feet long and seeming to weigh a ton. 
I saw and examined it and there is no doubting either 
its material, its size or its weight. When we remember 
that the Japanese people are a hatless people — nothing 
standing for a hat being part of the national costume— 
and then recall the just pride and evident attention 
constantly bestowed by their women upon their hair, 
what shall be thought of the sacrifice that that two 
hundred and twenty-eight feet of cable represents ? The 
thousands of women who gave up their raven tresses, 
and for years afterwards went forth shorn of them, is 
pathetic proof that Buddhism also has a very strong 
hold upon its devotees. 

I watched a funeral procession in Kyoto wending its 
way to the furnace, which is two miles out of the city. 



294 Around the World in a Year 

The body was carried in a palanquin and the only un- 
usual thing was its sitting posture, which it seems is 
customary. Cremation as a funeral rite has been prac- 
ticed in Japan for centuries and, if it be a reform, the 
Japanese still lead the so-called civilized countries, for 
much the greater number of their dead are disposed of 
in that way. 

Their religion is a compound of Buddhism and Shin- 
toism, principally the former. As with the Chinese, 
ancestor worship is a marked feature of their devotions. 
My effort to understand ancestor worship leads me to 
believe it is chiefly a yearning, by way of prayer and 
sacrifice, for intercession by the ancestor with Buddha 
for success to the suppliant in his worldly affairs. 
And that it is founded on a belief, or fear, that the 
ancestor still has authority over him. It is the dead 
hand on the latch. Ancestors are worshipped, as such, 
quite apart from their particular earthly records. It 
is therefore an indiscriminate worship and, if you will 
stop to think about it, the very next thing to the wor- 
ship of self. As ancestors go, of course much of this 
worship may be wasted, for many an ancestor — if this 
line of speculation can be pursued — may be as much a 
subject of solicitude and as much in need of interces- 
sion as the supplicant ; and relief or reprieve, for them- 
selves, a consummation most desirable. It is the in- 
discriminate worship of ancestors which I am noticing. 
The beauty there is in it, and also the possible comfort 
that there may be for those who practice the rite, are 
not lost sight of. 

The origin of the great little brown people of Japan 
is sunk in mystery. Their language is said to be utterly 
distinct from the Chinese, and those who claim any 



Japan 297 

knowledge on the subject say that there is no blood 
connection with the Chinese whatever — that, anatom- 
ically, they most resemble the Koreans. In such a case 
I suppose everybody has the right to an opinion, and 
mine, reasoning geographically, physiologically and 
from slight observation, is that the Koreans are the 
offspring of China and Manchuria ; and that Japan was 
peopled from Korea, with a generous admixture of 
some more northerly and hardier race, most probably 
the Siberians. The faintest trace of the Eskimo, with 
his broad, flat face, high cheek-bones and slits for eyes, 
is usually unmistakable. It is seen in the Finlander 
and I thought it recognizable also in the Japanese. ( )f 
course, being islanders they have grafted on some 
peculiarities of their own. The author is mindful that 
this is an incursion into the ethnic mysteries and a bold 
deduction from very uncertain premises. Whatever 
their chemistry the Japanese people are now certainly 
showing to advantage. 

Japan to me, as a show place, was somewhat dis- 
appointing. I expected to be put under the spell of that 
particular charm and witchery claimed for it by all 
the writers, but the spell missed me. To be sure, I 
was not there long enough to learn the language and 
it was between seasons — neither chrysanthemum nor 
cherry blossom time — bleak, ulster weather. But I 
made excursions into the. country districts and visited 
the large cities, and was there long enough to see that 
the people are very poor, in the sense in which lack of 
possessions and low wages make poor; that their dwell- 
ings are, very generally, small and unpainted, rude and 
rusty looking; that their roads are bad and their mon- 
uments few and unimportant, in comparison with other 



29 8 Around the World in a Year 

countries we have visited. Indeed, I left Japan with 
the feeling that it has been overwritten. 

But I will be frank. The fault may have been merely 
personal — a temporary suspension of the power of 
appreciation— for those fleas of Colombo and that 
prickly-heat of Java turned out to be a bad case of 
the itch, which was most troublesome during my stay in 
Japan. It is a species of penalty often imposed upon 
travel in the East. Searching the bazaars, mingling 
with the crowds at the temples and being followed by 
the beggars was part of the game — and this the price, 
the only ill effects. The clhoby man, the slamming 
native washman of India, of course rests under some 
suspicion. At any rate, I was laid up for a while in a 
private hospital in Yokohama, where scratching was 
not resented and a course of strong, almost blistering, 
sulphur baths could be had. It seems there are ninety- 
eight varieties of the itch, and a returning judge from 
the Philippines told me he thought he had heard of hun- 
dreds of cases among his acquaintance in the islands. 
Apart from this, unfailing good health had followed 
me. The fevers which attack so many Europeans had 
been avoided, but the itch was not, and it may have 
colored my impressions of Japan— though I do not 
think it did. I must still insist that Japan has been 
overwritten, as a field for the traveler. 



HAWAII 

The thirty-four hundred miles from Yokohama to 
Bird Island, near Honolulu, was across the loneliest sea 
I ever traveled. Not a sail was sighted, nor was there 
ever a single wisp of smoke on the horizon — nothing 
but the great brown gulls kept us company. 

On this voyage we crossed the one hundred and 
eightieth meridian, and there picked up a new day. We 
crossed it on Friday the 22d day of February — Wash- 
ington's birthday — and were provided with another, 
right off. With us and on our log we had two Fridays 
in the same week and yet we matched up all right with 
San Francisco when we got there, although they had 
but one of the Fridays. Funny, is it not, and, for us 
laymen — in spite of the labored explanations of the 
navigators — is it not a little spooky, also? It was dis- 
agreeably rough on both days — the regular Friday and 
the phantom Friday. Nobody begrudges Washington 
all the birthdays that can be collected in his honor, but 
to suffer with seasickness for forty-eight hours on a 
stretch, as we did, and have them call it a day only, 
there's the rub. 

Our ship carried at least five hundred Japanese and 
about fifty Filipinos to Honolulu, all of them labor- 
ers. Several fellow-passengers who were returning 
from long sojourns in the Philippines — officials among 
them — told me that the fifty were a very fair average 
of the Filipino masses. During the eight days they 
were with us we had constant opportunity to study and 

299 



3°° 



Around the World in a Year 



compare the two races. Each kept entirely aloof from 
the other. They were all young men, but the differences 
between them which close observation revealed marked 
the superiority of the Japanese in every other respect. 




A Symphony in Palms, Hawaii. 



The Japanese were neat and sturdy; had broad fore- 
heads, determined chins and a cheerful air. The Fili- 
pinos, on the contrary, were distinctly untidy, phys- 
ically ill-favored ; weak and wicked-looking. It seemed 
to me that the countenance of every one of them was 
stamped with moral obliquity, and with some verifica- 



Hawaii 301 

tion of those horrible stories of mutilation of the 
wounded, and of the living* burials of American sol- 
diers, which have come from the Philippines. And, 
when one of the returning officials stated that in his 
opinion the Filipinos were a played-out race and not 
the stuff upon which it is possible to found a com- 
monwealth, it did seem as if the proof was with us. 

From all I have seen and learned of the different 
tribes and races in the East the impression is left that 
Uncle Sam has a more difficult proposition in his at- 
tempt to govern and elevate the Filipinos than has 
any civilized nation with dependencies there. The 
Hindus, the Ceylonese and the Javanese are amenable 
to kindness, and appreciate justice and peace; but the 
moral qualities of gratitude and compassion, it would 
seem, are sadly wanting in the Filipinos. There can 
be no doubt, though, that they are fortunate in their 
recent change of masters, and that their prospects are 
as good as is possible. I am humbly aware that some 
of our opinions are based upon rather slight founda- 
tion, and that especially is this so of the Philippines. 
Our rendition of Japan is also open to some of the 
same criticism. The reader is asked to accept the 
opinions in our Japan not as conclusions but rather as 
so many impressions, very real to us but which perhaps 
further acquaintance or a longer stay would have 
cleared up. First sights and initial impressions are, 
though, sometimes the truest. They usually are the 
fullest and most informing. A traveler gets his chief 
joy from his first sights; and local color is never so 
distinguishable or accentuated as when it first comes 
into view. 

The population of the nine Hawaiian Islands is about 



302 Around the World in a Year 

one hundred and sixty thousand, of which upwards of 
seventy thousand are Japanese; and now that the ex- 
clusion act has gone into effect against them in the 
States they are expected to crowd into the islands in 
still greater numbers. I learned that the Japanese are 
unpopular — that the most satisfactory laborers on the 
plantations are Portuguese, but not nearly enough of 
them can be got although strenuous efforts to that end 
have been made. The week before we reached there a 
ship loaded with fifteen hundred of them had arrived 
from Portugal. Next after the Portuguese the Chinese 
are preferred as laborers. But as they are excluded 
from the islands as well as from the States, the supply 
cannot be increased. This discrimination against the 
Chinese is working poorly in Hawaii. 

The native Hawaiians are a fast dying race. Only 
about twelve thousand remain. We were credibly in- 
formed that their language and customs indicate that 
they came, originally, from Samoa, as did the Maoris 
of New Zealand and nearly all the Polynesians — that 
they are true South Sea Islanders. To watch them in 
their outrigger canoes and on their surf -boards riding 
the rollers is a fine sight. 

Of course we had visions of great Captain Cook, their 
discoverer, who named them the Sandwich Islands and 
was killed by the natives for ill-treating them. So far 
as I know the captain did not get his name — nor the 
islands theirs — from anything the natives did to the 
captain. Missionaries were more to their liking. We 
had visions also of the hardy New England whale fish- 
ers who, later, so often made Honolulu a port of call — 
it rating with them as did Fayal in the Atlantic. 

Honolulu is situated on the south coast — which is 




Fisherman Throwing the Net, Hawaii. 



Hawaii 305 

fortunate — for it is a curious fact that on that side 
of the island the rainfall is but seventeen inches, while 
on the other — just across the mountain and only a very 
short distance away — it is over one hundred inches. 
The constant northeast trade winds send the clouds 
against that other side of the mountain, there to be 
dissipated — furnishing the reason why one side is so 
often drenched and the other so generally dry. 

Their last sovereign, the deposed Queen Liliuokalani, 
still resides there. If she had had England or France 
to deal with she would have been deported, as were 
the Queen of Madagascar and King Thebaw. America 
seems able to take such chances. She receives fifteen 
thousand dollars a year from the government and, 
apart from the pension, is considered to be rich. 

The missionaries have long taken an important part 
in the affairs of the Hawaiians. Perhaps nowhere else 
have they been so nearly in command. A scholarly 
fellow-passenger explained it by informing me of the 
situation found by the missionaries first to arrive at 
the islands, as shown, she said, by the records. It 
seems that the island gods had multiplied until they 
interfered, and so very many things were taboo that 
life had become a burden; when a native woman, in the 
latter half of the seventeenth century, dared the great 
volcano god and lived — though she climbed to the rim 
and looked in. Coming back, she proclaimed a general 
amnesty from the gods and from taboo, with such effect 
that the islanders dismissed them all. At that oppor- 
tune period, when they were a people without religion, 
the missionaries came and quickly made many converts. 

We would have liked to be able to make the ex- 
cursion between the islands, which lasts a week, and 



306 Around the World in a Year 

includes a visit to the great Mauna Loa volcano. Sev- 
eral extinct volcanoes are in plain sight from the city. 
In fact, Honolulu is built on the side of one, and very 
close to it. The Punchbowl, which is its name, is as 
well denned and conventional a crater as you could 
wish. If it ever opens fire Honolulu will not be worth 
a half -hour's purchase. They say the Hawaiian 
Islands afford the best possible study of volcanic 
action: and there is an idea that a bird's-eye view of 
their surface discloses a very close resemblance to the 
surface of the moon as seen through powerful tele- 
scopes. A scientist has recently written a book around 
the idea, and the comparative photographs are cer- 
tainly singularly alike. The many cones, deep-set 
craters and canyons of the islands heighten the like- 
ness — reproducing even those cavernous lunar spots. 
Just what it is thought to prove as to the moon's condi- 
tion, I am unaware. 

Pearl Harbor, which has been selected by the Gov- 
ernment for development, with the view of making it 
the principal port and a naval station, may be the best 
that offers, strategically, but the outlook there indicates 
that it will be costly. A U. S. naval commander, a 
fellow-passenger, told me he thought that Japan could 
take the Hawaiian Islands in a dash, any time she de- 
termined upon it; but that she could not hope to hold 
them longer than three months. I trust no state secrets 
have been divulged, but will venture to add that the 
sixteen battleships, and the Panama Canal (when com- 
pleted), will probably support the commander's theory 
— at least as to those three months. 

Sugar is their principal product, and it now reaches 
twenty-five million dollars annually. No other soil is 



Hawaii 307 

so productive of sugar. As many thousands of acres 
in the Hawaiis average ten tons of refined sugar to the 
acre, and some as high as fourteen tons, if you will 
figure a single acre of it into candy you will wonder at 
the high price of the candy. 

He may perhaps be in a state of mind over the 
Philippines, but Uncle Samuel should, I think, be proud 
of his sunny Hawaiis. Like their climate, they are soft 
and alluring. But we must away, face the last of our 
sea voyages and get to San Francisco and home. 



HONOLULU TO SAN FRANCISCO AND 

HOME 

We had not gone far on our way from Honolulu to 
San Francisco before the sea became rough, and the 
last four days were very trying. Ocean's white horses 
were foaming and furious. The big seas almost stag- 
gered the ship, shivered her, and we had to lay-to twice. 

' ' Who hath desired the Sea ? — the sight of salt water un- 
bounded — 
The heave and the halt and the hurl and the crash of the 
comber wind-hounded?" 

What is this seasickness, anyway? Is it oscillation of 
the brain, as some doctors say it is, or is it misplaced 
stomach as it seems! The captain said he had been on 
the course seven years, but never before experienced 
such seas and wind, and the newspaper accounts of 
the voyage echoed that sentiment. The best or worst 
of anything generally has an attraction of its own, but 
a record storm at sea is to be feared. The commander 
in the U. S. Navy told me, at the time, that the seas 
were at least forty feet high. It seemed as if the ship 
would jump her boilers through the bottom. We came 
up to the Golden Gate all battened down and two days 
behind our schedule, with passengers sick and sore and 
the officers and crew tired out. And this was the 
Pacific Ocean, so-called. If my opinion had then been 
asked of "a life on the ocean wave" I would have said 

308 



Honolulu to San Francisco and Home 309 

that it was a dog's life, and been prepared to prove it. 
However, this was the last of the sea voyages for us, 
and though the Atlantic and Mediterranean had been 
unruly, the Indian Ocean and even the China Sea had 
been kind and smiling. We could not expect to trav- 
erse thirty thousand miles of sea without a shudder 
somewhere. 

We were only long enough in fire-swept San Fran- 
cisco to get rested and then, after dropping down to 
Los Angeles, Catalina and several of the southern Cali- 
fornia resorts, we crossed the continent, stopping for 
several days at the Grand Canyon of the Colorado. It 
was our first visit there. This pen flinches at any de- 
scription of it. There is nothing greater on earth that 
we know of. The Himalayas at sun-break or the Pacific 
stirred by a hurricane, in impressiveness, may be com- 
parable ; but nothing else in nature that we have looked 
upon. The scene from the edge, across the great chasm 
and six thousand feet down, is appalling. It is titanic 
chaos and worth going a thousand miles to see. We 
succeeded in getting to the river, most of the way on 
mule back by the famous trail. Part of the way it is 
so steep that even the mules were dispensed with, and 
left to clamber alone. It is seven miles from rim to 
river by the trail, — at least half of the way with frown- 
ing cliffs on the one side and within eighteen inches 
of deep destruction on the other. Some of the corners 
of the zigzags which we turned were heart-breaking. 
It was a precipice ride and no mistake ; with the mules 
- — specially trained to the trail — in entire charge, and 
I say good! for the sure-footed little beasts. It ap- 
peared to be the sentiment of all who reached the river 
that they would not take a thousand dollars for the 



310 Around the World in a Year 

record, but that they would not repeat it for that 
sum. 

The arrival at the Grand Central Station in New 
York brought me back to the starting-point and com- 
pleted the journey around the world — filling a cher- 
ished ambition and laying, for a while at least, that 
fiend of travel which had always possessed me. In 
schooldays I never saw a train or a ship start, for 
anywhere, without wishing to get aboard and stay till 
it stopped. Although favored since with a number of 
tours in Europe and considerable travel elsewhere, 
my fiend was never before satisfied. 

We have not been to Mars or the moon, but we have 
had at least a glimpse of four continents. We know 
better than ever before that the world is full of beauty 
and interest; and bring back pleasant memories 
enough for a lifetime. We have been through much heat 
and dust, and some discomfort ; we have had to live, as 
it were, in our trunk and "be sure to, drink mineral 
water, but thanks to kind Providence we have thor- 
oughly enjoyed our long season of vagabondage and 
return without an ache or pain to pick up the threads 
of life as and where we left them. 

Other scenes and other climes may allure for a while, 
but the dearest spot on earth is Home, — Sweet Home. 



MAR 7 1908 



